An image claiming to show Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer laughing and “chilling with Jimmy Savile” was posted and shared on social media with the caption “Sir Kier Starmer wants this photo permanently removed from the internet. Let’s keep it moving…”.
Evaluation: False
The picture has been edited to show Sir Keir Starmer with Jimmy Savile when instead he was sitting with former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown.
The facts
A number of details strongly suggest the picture has been AI-generated or edited, including the misspelling of the Labour leader’s name and a partial distortion in the top right-hand corner.
The original picture was posted on X, formerly Twitter, on December 4 2022 by Rachel Reeves, Labour MP for Leeds West, and showed Sir Keir with former prime minister Gordon Brown watching England play Senegal in the 2022 Fifa World Cup.
Ms Reeves captioned her post: “Watching the match in Leeds”, and tagged fellow Labour politicians shadow international development minister Lisa Nandy and West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin, who can be seen in the background of the image.
A second picture of the same event from a different angle, which also showed Gordon Brown sitting in the same chair, was posted on Sir Keir’s X account 40 minutes after Ms Reeves’ post.
The politicians had gathered in Leeds the night before the December 5 launch of a report from Labour’s commission on the UK’s future, headed by Mr Brown.
The Labour Party was contacted by the PA news agency about the claim and confirmed the original picture had been doctored.
As well as the “Kier” spelling error, the man sat directly behind West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin, who is wearing a white top with red writing, has an obviously stretched forehead, a mistake often seen in AI-generated images.
[pa_oembed = 54e939ec2f845fcee7f9a1a608925eae]Savile, one of the UK’s most prolific sexual predators, died on October 29 2011 – 11 years before the picture was posted.
Sir Keir did not become an MP until 2015.
He was director of public prosecutions from 2008 to 2013, and led the Crown Prosecution Service when a report was published in 2013 that found a chance to convict Savile for sex offences against three victims when he was alive was missed because police and prosecutors did not take the claims seriously enough.
While Sir Keir played no role in the decision not to prosecute Savile, as head of the CPS he apologised on behalf of the organisation.
Links
The original X post by Rt Hon Rachel Reeves (archived)
Second picture, showing a different angle, posted on Sir Keir Starmer’s X account (archived)
Labour’s commission launched in Leeds on December 5 2022 (archived)
BBC News profile of Jimmy Savile (archived)
Link to Keir Starmer’s electoral history (archived)
Crown Prosecution Service report into Jimmy Savile failings (archived)