“Britain has the worst [Covid-19] death toll in Europe.”

That was the claim from Labour leader Keir Starmer in his party conference speech yesterday.

It’s technically true in terms of raw official figures. UK authorities have recorded 136,000 deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid test since the start of the pandemic, more than any country in Europe.

But Mr Starmer’s claim is misleading because it doesn’t account for the size of the population.

When we do that, we can see that Hungary currently has the highest per capita death toll in Europe. And by the same measure, the UK ranks seventh in the continent – behind nations including Italy and Belgium.

The Labour party was contacted for comment.