Full Fact, the UK’s independent fact checking charity, has compiled a round-up of claims from recent days, addressing misinformation about heatwaves, a fake safety warning, and the eligibility of Andy Burnham to become Prime Minister.
Hottest days in the UK
Social media posts have wrongly claimed that a day in June saw the highest temperature recorded in the UK since 1976, suggesting this disproves global warming. A Met Office spokesperson said this is “fundamentally incorrect”.
Posts shared on June 26 said: “Today is the hottest day in the UK since 1976. That means 50 years ago it was still just as hot as it is today. Global Warming is a lie.”
The temperature on June 26 2026 actually broke the record for the month of June set in 1976. It was not the hottest day recorded in the UK since then — there have been hotter days in other months between 1976 and 2026. The record for the hottest day in England and the UK is 40.3C on July 19 2022 in Coningsby, Lincolnshire.
According to the Met Office, the provisional temperature on June 26 was 37.7C in Lingwood, Norfolk, setting a new record for the hottest day in June. This beat the previous June record of 35.6C in Southampton in 1976 (which itself equalled a previous record of 35.6C set in Camden Square, London, in 1957). The highest temperature recorded during the heatwave of 1976 was 35.9C in Cheltenham on July 3.
A Met Office spokesperson said a comparison of two individual days is not evidence that global warming isn’t real. Four of the last five years are in the UK’s top-five warmest years by mean temperature since 1884. Speaking in January 2026, after 2025 was confirmed as the hottest year in the UK on record, the Met Office’s head of climate attribution Dr Mark McCarthy said: “Although it doesn’t mean every year will be the warmest on record, it is clear from our weather observations and climate models that human-induced global warming is impacting the UK’s climate.” The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said it is “unequivocal” that human influence has warmed the atmosphere.
Fake poster about ‘high risk of sexual assault’ in Glasgow
A fake poster from Glasgow City Council warning of a “high risk of sexual assault” has circulated widely on social media. The image, laid out like a poster with the council logo, says “WARNING” and “HIGH RISK OF SEXUAL ASSAULT”, along with advice to “travel in groups” and “avoid isolated areas after dark”.
Glasgow City Council told Full Fact it did not produce the poster. Police Scotland recently warned about misinformation about Glasgow being spread online. A council spokesman said: “We all have to take care to ensure the veracity of the information we share online about Glasgow.”
Posts stating Andy Burnham has no legal right to be Prime Minister are inaccurate
Many social media posts have claimed that Andy Burnham MP “has no legal right to be Prime Minister” because he wasn’t elected in a general election. This is not correct. While by modern convention the Prime Minister is an MP, there is no law specifying they must have been elected in a general election.
The Cabinet Manual says the Prime Minister is appointed “by virtue of his or her ability to command the confidence of the House of Commons”, normally as the leader of a party with a majority. There is no mention of a need to have been elected in a general election. The Institute for Government confirmed that Burnham does have a constitutional mandate to become Prime Minister. The most recent example of someone becoming PM without being elected as an MP in a general election was in 1963, when Sir Alec Douglas-Home was appointed while in the House of Lords; he renounced his peerage and won a by-election shortly afterwards.
