What was claimed
An image shows Sir Keir Starmer sitting beside Jimmy Savile.
Our verdict
Not true. The image has been edited to include Jimmy Savile’s face. The original photograph showed Mr Starmer sitting alongside Gordon Brown.
Photo does not show Sir Keir Starmer sitting beside Jimmy Savile
29 April 2024
An altered image that falsely claims to show Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer sitting next to Jimmy Savile is circulating again on Facebook .
The photo shows Mr Starmer sitting on a chair beside serial sex abuser Jimmy Savile.
The image appears to be a screenshot of a TikTok video, which includes the text: “Sir Kier Starmer wants this photo permanently removed from the internet. Let’s keep it moving…[sic].”
Other people are visible in the background of the image, including shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, shadow international development secretary Lisa Nandy, and the Labour mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin, who are sitting on chairs behind Mr Starmer.
However, as we pointed out earlier this year, the image has been edited to include Savile’s face.
The original photo, which was posted on X (formerly Twitter) by Ms Reeves in December 2022, shows a group of people watching an England football World Cup match. It shows Mr Starmer sitting alongside former Prime Minister Gordon Brown. In the image shared on Facebook, Mr Savile’s face has been edited onto Mr Brown’s body.
It was also taken 11 years after Savile’s death.
There are other clues that the image has been edited, such as the elongation of the forehead of a man in the background of the photo.
We’ve written before about 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 image has been edited to include Jimmy Savile’s face.