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Alongside a screenshot of the top of a Government press release, he tweeted: “So we can’t afford to keep our own ticket offices open – but we can afford to build a new line in Turkey?” The press release was headlined: “UK announces £680m for new high-speed electric railway in Turkey”. At the time of writing in July 2023, the tweet had been viewed around 2.3 million times, liked around 11,900 times and retweeted over 3,600 times. ## Evaluation: Misleading UK Export Finance (UKEF), the UK Government’s export credit agency, has provided a guarantee that allows banks to loan money to build the railway, but it is not directly funding the £680 million project. The headline of the original press release published on the official gov.uk website, has since been changed to: “UK backs £680m loan guarantee for new high-speed electric railway in Turkey”. ## The facts UKEF is a Government department working alongside the Department for Business and Trade. Its buyer credit facility provides a guarantee to a bank making a loan to an overseas buyer. UKEF has underwritten 781m euro of financing for the Turkish railway project – equivalent to £680m – on the condition UK firms are involved in the work, with the press release stating the backing “has been given on the condition that UK exporters supply to the project”. Three banks – JP Morgan, ING Bank and BNP Paribas – have now been given the green light to make the loan with the backing of the UKEF guarantee. Ronesans Holding, one of the Europe’s 10 largest construction companies, will finish building the railway on behalf of the Turkish Ministry of Transport, the press release added. ![\\"Man](\\"//image.assets.pressassociation.io/v2/image/production/99309ddfddd9b2f7cd040e4db5aea724Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNjkwNTQ4MjMw/2.18819474.jpg?w=640\\")JP Morgan is one of the banks lending money to the project (PA/Yui Mok) The tweet by Andy Burnham, an elected Labour mayor, also mentions ticket office closures in England. Plans were announced on July 5 by the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), which said staff would move out of ticket offices, adopting new “customer help” roles already in place on many parts of the rail network. The RDG has said the proposals would mean more face-to-face support was available across the network to choose the cheapest tickets and advise on journey planning, as well as support those with accessibility needs. The plans have drawn fierce criticism from groups representing passengers and the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT). On July 26, the RDG extended the deadline for a public consultation on the plans until September 1. ## Links Claim on Twitter (archived) Archived version of original UKEF release Updated UKEF release (archived) UKEF website (archived) BBC News story on ticket office closures in England (archived) ## About PA’s fact checks If you have any suggestions for future fact checks, objections or comments, please send them to factcheck@pamediagroup.com, including any relevant links. 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The UK Government is spending 680 million on a highspeed railway in Turkey