A news article reports that the Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said that the comedian Billy Connolly is “outdated, vulgar and offensive” and comedians like him do not represent Scottish people.
This article isn’t real. The screenshot has been faked, and there’s no evidence Anas Sarwar ever made these comments.
A faked screenshot of a news article claiming that the Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar criticised Billy Connolly and said he was “vulgar and offensive” is gaining traction online. But there’s no evidence this is true, and Mr Sarwar has previously praised the comedian.
The image, which looks like a news article from an unspecified outlet, has been shared widely on Facebook. It includes a picture of Mr Sarwar and the headline: “Sarwar says Billy Connolly is outdated vulgar and offensive”.
It continues in the lead text: “Sarwar says he is not a fan of Billy Connolly, and comedians like him do not represent the Scottish people with their vulgar and offensive humor.”
In a caption below the picture, it adds that the Scottish Labour leader has said he would “end the culture of vulgarness that gives Scotland a bad reputation on the world stage if he wins a majority in the next election”.
But the Scottish Labour Party confirmed to Full Fact that the article is fake.
A search for the headline also produces no genuine results for the article, and there is no public record of Mr Sarwar having made these comments about Mr Connolly. The Americanised spelling of ‘humor’ and the grammar error in the headline which is missing a comma are also clues that it is not a genuine headline from a UK news outlet.
Mr Sarwar posted on X (formerly Twitter) in 2021 about the comedian, calling him the “best comedian I have ever had the pleasure to see in the flesh” and recalled “rolling about the floor in stitches” during a ceremony in 2010 where Mr Connolly received the Freedom of the City of Glasgow and addressed the audience.
It’s not the first time we have seen fabricated headlines and news articles about, or supposedly written by politicians circulating online.
False or misleading claims about politicians have the potential to affect people’s opinions of individuals, parties or how they choose to vote. It’s important to consider whether what you are seeing comes from a verifiable and trustworthy source before sharing.
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 false because this screenshot is fake, and there’s no evidence Anas Sarwar ever made the comments it claims.
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