Picture doesn’t show Boris Johnson queueing for the Queen’s lying-in-state

21 September 2022
What was claimed

A photograph of a man queueing shows Boris Johnson waiting to attend the Queen’s lying-in-state.

Our verdict

This is not true. The photograph appears to originate on Twitter, where the person who shared it says the man in the picture is not Boris Johnson.

A post on Facebook with over 1,000 ‘likes’ shares what appears to be a photograph of a man in the queue to see the Queen’s lying-in-state, along with the caption: “Our Boris queued for 13 hours to pay respects to our Queen- well done Boris”.

But the man in the picture is not the former Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.

The photo, which is slightly blurred, appears to originate with a Twitter user who posted it during the night on 18 September with the words: “Boris just passed us in #TheQueue”.

However, he tweeted later: “Sorry to disappoint you all I was just pulling a fast one…This isn’t infact Boris… just looked incredibly like him!”

And in a subsequent tweet the following day, he said: “As I’ve quite clearly stated already. This wasn’t actually Boris… just looked incredibly like him! Calm down people”.

The Twitter user also posted two other photographs that he says show the same man.

We have seen other people claim that Mr Johnson queued to see the Queen’s lying-in-state, but we have not been able to find any evidence to support this. We have asked Mr Johnson’s office whether he queued, but have not received a reply at the time of publication.

Mr Johnson attended the Queen’s funeral. As an MP, Mr Johnson would not have been required to queue, according to widespread reports.

Image courtesy of Ben Shread

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