Video of George Freeman MP announcing defection to Reform UK is fake

A video that appears to show Conservative MP George Freeman announcing his defection to Reform UK has been shared widely online.

But the video isn’t real and was likely made using artificial intelligence (AI).

The clip appears to show Mr Freeman speaking in Westminster, and supposedly saying: “After 14 years as a Conservative MP I’m making the biggest decision of my political career [...] today I’m crossing the floor to join Reform UK. The Conservative party has lost its way.”

But there is no evidence that the clip is genuine.

Mr Freeman has denied the clip is real, posting on Facebook: “A video has been circulating on social media, using AI-generated imagery of me announcing that I have abandoned the Conservative Party to join the Reform Party. This video is entirely fake and false and I want to make it absolutely clear that I have not left the Conservative Party to join Reform, and have no intention of doing so.”

He added: “I have reported this matter to the relevant authorities, and I urge anyone who sees the video to report it immediately rather than share it further.” Norfolk Police told us: “We have been made aware of the video and remain in contact with Mr Freeman’s office”.

After looking through Mr Freeman’s social media we matched the outfit he is wearing and background in Westminster to a video he posted on YouTube in April 2020 providing an update on the Coronavirus pandemic. This video was therefore posted before the Brexit Party changed its name to Reform UK in January 2021.

The cadence of the audio in the recent video is extremely even and the intonation sounds stiff and unnatural, which suggests it may be AI-generated. Although less likely, we can’t rule out that it has been faked in another way, for example by using an impersonator. You can read more about how to spot AI audio, and the challenges of doing this, in our guide.

AI also appears to have been used to make it look as though Mr Freeman is saying the words falsely attributed to him, an example of a lip-sync deepfake.

We have seen another suspected AI video of Mr Freeman online that appears to show him making the same hand gestures, but instead of talking about defecting to Reform UK, he discusses seizing Norfolk farmland for development. There is no evidence Mr Freeman has ever proposed this and, as experts have previously told us, the presence of background music, as featured in this clip, may also be used to hide sound imperfections in fake audio.

In September Conservative MP Danny Kruger became the first sitting Conservative MP to defect to Reform UK, after several former Conservative MPs defected to the party. Mr Freeman, however, remains a Conservative MP.

We’ve seen various suspected deepfake audio clips of other politicians in recent years, including of the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, health secretary Wes Streeting, and the Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan. There’s no evidence that any of these were real recordings of the politicians in question.

As AI technology becomes increasingly sophisticated, it is harder to differentiate between real and generated content online. Our recent blog delved into what clues to look out for if you suspect something may have been created with AI.