Old video of Keir Starmer surrounded by protestors shared as breaking news

The context 

A recent post on X (formerly Twitter) by Jim Ferguson, a former parliamentary candidate with the Brexit Party (now Reform UK), has garnered over 800,000 views, falsely claiming to show a recent video of Keir Starmer being surrounded by protestors. The caption reads "Breaking News: Chaotic scenes as Prime Minister Starmer and World Economic Forum (WEF) member is seen coming under attack by furious Brits," along with the hashtags "#TwoTierKeir" and "#GlobalistParasite." Many have shared the video with the same caption and hashtags on Facebook.

However, this is not breaking news; the original video is from 2022 before Keir Starmer became Prime Minister. Furthermore, Starmer is not a member of the World Economic Forum.

What we found

The original footage of protestors surrounding Keir Starmer dates back to February 2022, just days after former Prime Minister Boris Johnson falsely accused him of failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile during his tenure as Director of Public Prosecutions. During the incident, Starmer and then-Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy were walking past the Metropolitan Police headquarters in London's Westminster neighborhood when they were confronted by a crowd of angry protestors. The protestors shouted accusations such as, "You're a child abuser," "Where is Jimmy Savile?" and "You're a traitor," as police escorted Starmer to a car.

The hashtag #TwoTierKeir refers to the idea of "two-tier policing," a false belief that U.K. police are more lenient toward minority groups and immigrants while being harsher on white British citizens. Most recently, far-right activist Tommy Robinson has popularized this myth. Elon Musk used the term "two-tier Keir" in a tweet to criticize Keir Starmer's response to the U.K. riots following the Southport stabbings in July. However, this footage is from 2022, before Starmer was appointed to the position of prime minister, making the term irrelevant in the context of the reused video.

Logically Facts has investigated several claims concerning two-tier policing. One example involved two court verdicts that were shared online without proper context, giving the misleading impression that a white man was given a harsher sentence than a Black man.

In June, Logically Facts debunked the claim that Keir Starmer is a member of the World Economic Forum. A spokesperson for the WEF clarified that the Forum "does not engage in political campaigns or endorsements of individual politicians."

The verdict

The original footage is from 2022. The video has been reused and shared as recent news. Therefore, we have marked the claim as misleading.