Keir Starmer did not mention Mother’s Day yesterday, but he did post about Eid marking the end of Ramadan for Muslims.
This is misleading. While Mr Starmer didn’t mention Mother’s Day on X, he did post about it on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. He posted about Eid on Facebook and X, but not on LinkedIn or Instagram.
Posts circulating on Facebook have suggested that on 30 March the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer posted on social media in celebration of Eid, but did not mention that it was also Mothering Sunday. This is misleading—while Mr Starmer did not mention Mothering Sunday (or Mother’s Day) on X , he did share posts about it on several other social media platforms.
One Facebook user shared a screenshot of Mr Starmer’s post on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday wishing “Muslims in the UK and across the world a blessed and joyful Eid-al-Fitr” with the caption: “No mention of Mother's Day & no mention of Lent... people need to understand who Starmer bows down to.”
Another post said: “So that prick of a PM, called Starmer, has released a well wish for the Islamic Eid. At the same time, he ignored any statement for Lent. He has not mentioned Mothering Sunday, either.”
However Mr Starmer did acknowledge Mother’s Day in a number of social media posts, including at least one apparently published prior to his X post about Eid at 8.30am on Sunday.
In a Facebook post at 8am on Sunday, he shared an old photo featuring his mother, Josephine Starmer, and wife, Victoria Starmer, with the caption: “Thinking of my late mum today, who so influenced me as I was growing up; and thinking of my wife Vic, who is the rock of our family. This picture, from our wedding day, is one of my favourite memories of them both together. Happy Mother’s Day.”
A subsequent Facebook post at 8.30am that day said: “As the holy month of Ramadan ends, I wish Muslims in the UK and across the world a blessed and joyful Eid-al-Fitr. Eid Mubarak!”
The same photo and caption honouring Mother’s Day were also shared by Mr Starmer’s Instagram and LinkedIn accounts yesterday. He did not post about Eid on these platforms.
It’s true that on 30 March Mr Starmer did not post anything about Lent, which in the Christian calendar is the 40-day period of fasting or abstinence in the run up to Easter, and which began on 5 March this year.
Misleading claims like this can spread quickly online—we’ve recently written about a number of other claims about politicians circulating on social media, including a picture supposedly showing Angela Rayner donating a self portrait to Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister, and that the UK has promised to give an annual £3 billion to Ukraine for the next 100 years.
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 missing context because while Mr Starmer did not mention Mother’s Day on X, he did post about it on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. He posted about Eid on Facebook and X, but not on LinkedIn or Instagram.
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