A BBC article reports on an on-air conversation between Sir Keir Starmer and Dermot O’Leary where Mr Starmer endorsed an online trading platform.
This article has never appeared on the real BBC News website. The government and the BBC have also said the story is fake.
A link to a fake BBC article, that claims to report on a deleted interview with Prime Minister Keir Starmer and This Morning host Dermot O’Leary about an investment scheme, has appeared on Facebook.
The headline of the article reads: “This [sic] words disgraced him for the whole country! Bank of England is suing Keir Starmer for what he said on live TV. Every British person should know about this.”
The Facebook post linking to the article includes a picture of Mr Starmer with a black eye, along with the caption: “Keir Starmer didn't know the camera was still recording... is this the end of his career?” Using Google Lens, Full Fact found the original image had been posted by Mr Starmer in November 2023, and has been subsequently edited to make it look like he has a black eye.
The post links to a fake BBC article which is very similar to one which circulated at the beginning of the year about ITV journalist Robert Peston promoting an online trading platform.
Like the fake article about Mr Peston, this fake article also features a long transcript, supposedly of a “deleted” on-air interview between Mr Starmer and Mr O’Leary, about an easy way to make money using an online trading platform.
It also describes a BBC “editor” supposedly trying out the trading platform and shares details of their bank balance and how much money they apparently made through the scheme.
However, the article never appeared on the real BBC News website and the conversation between Mr Starmer and Mr O’Leary did not happen. No BBC article with that headline exists, and the broadcaster has confirmed it is fake.
A spokesperson for the BBC told Full Fact the article “is indeed fake” and the Department for Science and Technology (DSIT), also confirmed this. A spokesperson for DSIT added: “Social media companies have a responsibility to ensure their sites are not providing a platform for such material intended to rip the public off.”
There are a number of clues that it isn’t a genuine BBC News article, including that the article does not have a BBC URL, and none of the links to other sections of the BBC site function.
The fake article about Mr Starmer is presented as appearing on the business section of the BBC News website, but the real version does not have subsections such as ‘CEO Secrets’ and ‘Paths to Success’. The fake version of the website is also missing the icons which would usually appear on the top bar of the website next to categories such as ‘News’ and ‘Sport’.
Fake articles imitating trusted news sites such as these may convince people to make financial decisions based on fake endorsements from trusted public figures.
Citizens Advice describes how you can protect yourself online.
We have previously debunked other faked BBC articles, including one claiming that Martin Lewis endorsed a cryptocurrency platform in a BBC interview.
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 it is not a genuine BBC article and Keir Starmer has not endorsed a trading platform on-air, as it claims.
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