What was claimed
A picture shows Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and his former chief of staff Morgan McSweeney in a group embrace with Lord Peter Mandelson.
Our verdict
This image isn’t real and was almost certainly created using AI.
Picture of Keir Starmer hugging Lord Mandelson and Morgan McSweeney isn’t real
A photo that appears to show the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in a group embrace with his former chief of staff Morgan McSweeney and Lord Peter Mandelson has been circulating widely online.
But the image isn’t genuine, and has most likely been created with artificial intelligence (AI).
It comes after a fresh batch of emails released by the US justice department regarding convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein gave further insight into his relationship with Lord Mandelson, the UK’s former ambassador to the US.
Mr McSweeney resigned as Mr Starmer’s chief of staff on 8 February amid scrutiny over Lord Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador.
The picture has been shared over 1,000 times on Facebook, including by the former metro Mayor of North of Tyne Jamie Driscoll without reference to it being made or edited with AI. Full Fact has approached Mr Driscoll for comment.
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How do we know this picture isn’t real?
While the image being shared looks convincing, it isn’t real.
While it does resemble a real picture taken of Mr Starmer and Lord Mandelson (but not Mr McSweeney) in the ambassador's residence in Washington in February last year, the pattern of floor tiles in the fake picture doesn’t match real photos of the same space.
Thinner black lines emerge from the pillar in the fake picture, which don’t appear in any genuine pictures of videos of the corridor.
When we reverse image searched this picture, we found it had not been used by any credible news outlets.
And there are a number of clues that it was created with the help of AI.
The search did tell us it was “Made with Google AI”, meaning that it contains an invisible SynthID digital watermark which is embedded into content which has been generated or edited with one of Google’s AI products.
We also sent the image to Dr Siwei Lyu, an expert in digital media forensics at University at Buffalo, State University of New York, who told us the viral image contained “several traces of AI-generation”.
These included a “detached, floating hand fragment” which appears next to Mr Starmer’s tie, and structural distortion in the background wall carvings.
Dr Lyu also said there were “significant structural inconsistencies” between Mr McSweeney’s earlobe in the viral image and how it appears in genuine photos of him.
“The earlobe shape is a good indicator that this is not the same person,” Dr Lyu added.
While it was reported that Mr McSweeney was on the February 2025 Washington trip, this image depicting the three embracing isn’t real.
We have previously fact checked other viral images which have been created or enhanced with AI. Before sharing content like this that you come across online, first check to see if it comes from a reliable and trustworthy source. Our toolkit can help you 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 this isn’t a real picture of Sir Keir Starmer with Lord Peter Mandelson and Morgan McSweeney.