Edited image of Sir Keir Starmer sitting with Jimmy Savile recirculates online
What was claimed
An image shows Sir Keir Starmer sitting next to Jimmy Savile.
Our verdict
This isn’t true. The original photograph showed Mr Starmer sitting alongside Gordon Brown. Mr Brown’s face has been edited out and replaced with Jimmy Savile’s.
An altered image that appears to show Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer sitting next to Jimmy Savile is circulating again on Facebook in the run up to the general election.
The photo shows Mr Starmer sitting on a chair beside serial sex abuser Jimmy Savile. Shadow international development secretary Lisa Nandy is also visible.
However, as we have reported before, the image has been edited to include Savile’s face.
The original photo was posted by shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves in December 2022 and shows a group of people—including Ms Reeves, Ms Nandy and the Mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin watching an England football World Cup match.
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It shows Mr Starmer sitting alongside former Prime Minister Gordon Brown. In the altered image shared on Facebook, Mr Savile’s face has been edited onto Mr Brown’s body.
The photo was taken 11 years after Savile’s death and the edited version is much lower quality.
We’ve written before about other claims regarding Mr Starmer and Jimmy Savile.
Altered and manipulated videos and images can cause misinformation to spread widely online. It’s important to consider whether something is genuine before sharing. Our guides to spotting misleading images and videos can help you to do this.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as altered because the original image has been edited to include Jimmy Savile’s face.
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