Fact check: Photograph of Prime Minister with Southport attacker is fake

An image of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer appearing to shake the hand of Southport killer Axel Rudakubana has been widely shared on social media.

Evaluation

The photograph is fake and appears to have been shared as a joke.

The creator has superimposed Rudakubana’s mugshot onto the body of Labour MP Keir Mather in an image showing the MP shaking hands with his party leader. The original photograph is from July 2023.

The facts

In the manipulated image, Axel Rudakubana’s face has been taken from his custody photo, which was released by Merseyside Police on Monday January 20 2024 after the 18-year-old pleaded guilty at Liverpool Crown Court to three charges of murder and several other charges, including attempted murder.

The main portion of the photograph shows Sir Keir Starmer at an event in Selby, North Yorkshire, on July 21 2023. It was taken after Keir Mather won the by-election for the parliamentary constituency of Selby and Ainsty for Labour the previous day. In the original image, Sir Keir can be seen shaking Mr Mather’s hand.

The original image was found by performing a reverse image search on the altered photo shared on social media.

As well as superimposing Rudakubana’s face on Mr Mather’s body, the skin tone of the MP’s right hand has been darkened to match that of the teenager who was born in the UK to parents from Rwanda.

Links

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Merseyside Police – Southport trial: Rudakubana pleads guilty to all charges (archived)

Getty Images – Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner congratulate Labour’s new Selby MP (archived)

UK Parliament – Selby and Ainsty by-election (archived)

Reverse image search