What was claimed
Apsana Begum MP wrote an opinion article for the Guardian headlined “Gaza will rise from the ashes to become a city of the future to rival Bradford”.
Our verdict
This is false. No such article has appeared in the Guardian.
Fake Guardian article on Gaza ‘rivalling Bradford’ shared online
28 November 2024
A screenshot appears to show a Guardian opinion column written by Independent MP for Poplar and Limehouse Apsana Begum headlined: “Gaza will rise from the ashes to become a city of the future to rival Bradford”. But this isn’t a real article.
Posts including the screenshot have been shared hundreds of times on Facebook, TikTok and X (formerly Twitter). Although some seem to be sharing it as a joke, others appear to have taken it seriously, with one social media user commenting: “Poor beggars if that's all they have to look forward to”.
A Google search shows no such article currently exists on the Guardian’s website. The outlet’s opinion section does not feature any articles published by Ms Begum.
A spokesperson for the newspaper confirmed to Full Fact that “the screenshot shared has never been an article or headline published by the Guardian”.
And Ms Begum told Full Fact: “This is not an authentic screenshot but a false slur”.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a fake Guardian opinion column being shared online—we have previously debunked articles claimed to be written by energy secretary Ed Miliband, former vice presidential candidate Tim Walz and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, among others.
Although some claims seem really obviously false, we still fact check them because it may not be clear to everyone that it is untrue, particularly more casual internet users. We’ve written about this in more detail on our blog.
It’s always worth checking if social media pictures show what the posts say they do before you share them. For more advice, read our toolkit.
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 Apsana Begum MP did not write an article for the Guardian with the headline “Gaza will rise from the ashes to become a city of the future to rival Bradford”.