What has homelessness among veterans got to do with asylum seekers? Everything, according to certain corners of the internet.

“Migrants live in luxury, veterans made homeless,” screamed a Talk TV headline earlier this year. “Typical – why can’t we take care of our own?” fumed angry commenters.

Social media is full of such claims – ex-servicemen supposedly being turfed out of homeless shelters to make room for asylum seekers .

But is it true? In an exclusive interview, we asked prime minister Keir Starmer – and he was unequivocal.

“That is totally false. It’s conspiracy theory nonsense,” he told us. “On the contrary, we’ve actually got a ‘forces first’ policy, which is where veterans have preferential treatment, particularly on things like having to prove a local connection, which w

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