UK Edition
NHS looks into Labour campaign group's 'fake news' poster claiming health service will cost £4,500 a year in insurance premiums from 2018
The NHS is looking into a health scare poster sharing the fake claim that the health service will cost £4,500 a year from 2018.
The internet poster was shared by a group called Labour Future, a grassroots group which campaigns on behalf of the Labour Party and appears to be attempting to scare people off voting Conservative.
The image, which pictures the official logos of both Public Health England and the NHS, asks: “Have you bought your NHS insurance? From January 2018 the NHS will no longer be a free service.
“You and your family may be eligible for minimum health coverage for £4,500 a year. Don’t put it off. Don’t put your family at risk.”
The poster shares the real number for the NHS, and was shared 3,000 times from the Labour Future page alone.
Labour Future shared the poster on Facebook, and deleted the post after an outcry over the "clearly fake" information.
An NHS England spokesman told London's Evening Standard newspaper: "We treat misuse of the NHS logo extremely seriously and we are investigating the origin of this clearly fake poster.
“As soon as we became aware that Labour Future had reposted this image we contacted them and asked them to remove it from their social media, which they did.”
Public Health England described the poster as "fake news".