Fact check: Videos of celebrities speaking about politics more than a year old
Social media footage promising takedowns of Sir Keir Starmer rely on out of context interviews from years ago.
A series of apparently unconnected videos on YouTube and TikTok have featured clips of well-known British celebrities apparently disparaging Sir Keir Starmer on what is claimed to be live television. The videos have included comments from comedians Ricky Gervais and Rowan Atkinson, as well as actor Danny Dyer and chef Jamie Oliver, mixed with heavily opinionated commentary from an anonymous narrator.
Evaluation
Although the videos are often given titles that imply recent developments such as “5 minutes ago”, the footage in all cases is archive material that predates Sir Keir’s election as Prime Minister.
Some of the celebrities’ criticisms have been taken out of context and were actually aimed at previous governments and, in one case, a law from 1986. Most of the footage is also not taken from live television broadcasts, despite claims in the title.
The facts
Ricky Gervais
The video that purports to show Ricky Gervais “destroying” Sir Keir on “live TV” begins with a clip of the comedian asking: “When are we going to stop taking ‘went to Eton’ as a qualification to run the country?” This is the only footage of Gervais speaking that can be heard in the video, with the narrator suggesting that the comedian has “said what we’re all thinking about Keir Starmer”.
However, the video of Gervais talking about political leaders who studied at Eton was not originally aimed at Sir Keir, who was a student at Reigate Grammar School. Instead, the comedian made this point during a live-streamed broadcast on social media on December 20 2021, during the premiership of Boris Johnson, who did attend Eton.
Around three minutes into the video, Gervais starts to reference the parties held at Downing Street during the pandemic. At 3:29, Gervais asks the question seen in the TikTok clip. The rest of the broadcast regards TV recommendations, Christmas presents and the pandemic, with no mention of the Labour Party.
Danny Dyer
A very brief clip of former EastEnders actor Danny Dyer saying “he should be held accountable for it” is played at the start of a TikTok video that alleges Dyer dished out a “public humiliation” to Sir Keir. A fuller version of the clip can be seen in the longer YouTube video, which features the same narration and images as the TikTok video throughout. The longer version shows clearly that Dyer is on Good Evening Britain, a one-off late-night special edition of ITV’s breakfast programme Good Morning Britain broadcast in 2018.
In the clip, presenter Piers Morgan clarifies that a “former prime minister” is being talked about while Dyer says the man is “in Nice with his trotters up”. The full version of the clip shows that he was talking about David Cameron in the wake of the 2016 Brexit referendum.
Although most of the video after this clip in both manipulated versions features more opinion from the narrator not ascribed to Dyer, it does go on to quote him as saying the current Labour Party is “no longer run by people who understand what it means to struggle”. This is not a direct quote but does express a similar sentiment to that given by the actor in an interview with the Big Issue, where he also praised Labour frontbencher Angela Rayner.
Rowan Atkinson
Another video suggests that Rowan Atkinson has spoken out against Sir Keir’s stance on free speech. This includes footage of the Mr Bean and Blackadder comedian promoting his Netflix series Man vs Bee, released in 2022. Frequent clips are also shown of Atkinson talking about free speech, but these were recorded in 2012 as part of the Reform Section 5 campaign.
Reform Section 5 was an effort to amend the Public Order Act 1986 by removing the word “insulting” from the statute to avoid prosecutions brought over offensive jokes. The campaign eventually succeeded, with members of the House of Lords listing one key intervention as coming from Sir Keir who was director of public prosecutions at the time.
Jamie Oliver
A video showing Jamie Oliver discussing Labour’s lack of action in scrapping the two-child benefit cap is evidently taken from the Global-owned podcast The News Agents, with the watermark still in view. This is, again, not a live TV broadcast and not one where Oliver confronted Sir Keir.
A longer version of the clip, posted on the podcast’s TikTok account in July 2023, does show the TV chef directly talking about Sir Keir and free school meals generally. Oliver describes himself as “apolitical” and says Sir Keir – who was then leader of the opposition – has to “earn his vote” rather than outright criticising him. Oliver later approved of Labour’s plan to ban the sale of energy drinks to under-16s, announced in the run-up to the 2024 general election.
