Labour MP lands in trouble for sharing fake image of UK PM Rishi Sunak at brewery

Backlash followed British politician Karl Turner after the Labour MP for the United Kingdom's Hull East constituency shared a misleading picture of Rishi Sunak on Wednesday, featuring the prime minister holding a pint at the Great British Beer festival as a woman next to him looked in disapproval.

In the image shared on X (formerly known as Twitter), Sunak is seen grinning as he holds a drink, while a pink-haired woman behind gives a side-eye. "That’s nowt like the pints the pull in our local boozer. #EastHull," Turner captioned the post, which has garnered 459,000 views and dozens of comments. 

However, users were quick to notice that the image had been photoshopped. While some laughed it off, others slammed the Labour MP for disseminating inauthentic content. "In the era of deepfakes and digitally distorted images, it's even more important to be able to have reliable sources of information you can trust. No elected member of parliament should be misleading the public with fake images. This is pretty desperate stuff from Labour," tweeted Science Secretary Michelle Donelan. 

That’s nowt like the pints the pull in our local boozer. #EastHull pic.twitter.com/N2I5MlYGpA

— Karl Turner MP (@KarlTurnerMP) August 1, 2023

Labour MP apologises for sharing PM Sunak's fake picture

However, Darren Jones, the Labour chair of the Commons Business and Trade Committee, jumped in to defend Turner, questioning the government for its course of action in curbing the spread of fake images on social media. "What is your department doing to tackle deep fake photos, especially in advance of the next election? Let's have that discussion," he asserted. 

Turner later apologised for the post, telling Sky News that he was  "sorry for inadvertently sharing an image which apparently turns out to have been fake". The 52-year-old insisted that he was unaware that the image had been modified, remarking that "it certainly looks real and struck me exactly as what you would expect of the PM." Meanwhile, the original picture, which was uploaded on Sunak's official account, did not display the same pint and the woman with the disapproving facial expression.