Conservatives share clip of Rachel Reeves interview with lag to make it look like she struggled to answer question

The Conservative party has shared a video on X (formerly Twitter) appearing to show shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves pausing for several seconds after being asked about public finances under a potential Labour government on BBC News. It has been shared with the caption: “Cat got your tongue, Rachel?” 

But a video of the full interview shows technical issues were experienced on the line.

The clip shows a BBC Breakfast interview on 19 June in which Ms Reeves is asked about comments from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) on Labour’s manifesto. Ms Reeves, who was calling in from Swindon, doesn’t acknowledge or respond to the question and, after several seconds, the video shared by the Conservatives cuts to a screen of computer error messages, an apparent comment on the pause. 

Multiple Conservative candidates re-shared this clip on X, and it has also been posted on Facebook. 

However, a video of the full interview shows there were actually technical issues with the video call—there was an apparent lag of several seconds between the interviewer and Ms Reeves after every question. 

After asking the question regarding the IFS, there’s around a six second silence before the BBC presenter, Sally Nugent, says: “Rachel Reeves I think we might have just lost comms with you, can you hear me?”

Then Ms Reeves responded: “I’m still here, I heard you said something about the Institute for Fiscal Studies.” The question is then put to Ms Reeves again and she responds after a momentary delay.

We’ve contacted the Conservatives for comment and will update this article if we receive a response. 

This is not the first time Full Fact has seen edited videos that give a false impression of politicians or events. One clip that went viral in November 2023 apparently showed Mr Sunak using a hammer incorrectly, but didn’t include the part where he was told to use it in this way. 

It’s important to consider whether something shows what it claims to before sharing it online—our guide on spotting misleading videos should help you to do this.