By: Rahul Adhikari
May 7 2024
Edited video shared to claim U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was heckled while jogging
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Social media posts claim that Rishi Sunak was heckled while jogging in London. (Source: Facebook/Instagram/Modified by Logically Facts)
Fact-Check
The Verdict Fake
The original video captures someone, not visible in the frame, greeting endurance athlete Russ Cook, and not swearing at Sunak.
Claim ID 6a7de2ed
What is the claim?
A video circulating on social media claims to show U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak being verbally abused while jogging in London. The viral footage shows Sunak running alongside endurance athlete Russ Cook, also known as 'Hardest Geezer,' with some verbal abuse in the background being directed at the prime minister.
A text layer on the video reads, "Rishi Sunak is reminded of why he doesn't go on outdoor runs often." The video has been circulated widely across social media platforms, including Facebook, YouTube and TikTok. Archived versions of posts sharing the clip can be found here, here, and here.
Screenshots of posts sharing the viral video. (Source: Facebook/Instagram/Modified by Logically Facts)
However, the video has been digitally altered. Sunak was not heckled during the jog.
How did we find the truth?
We noted the number "10" written on the top left corner of the viral video, and on taking a cue from this, our research showed that the original video was published by the '10 Downing Street' YouTube channel (archived here) on April 25 with the title "Rishi Sunak goes for a run with the Hardest Geezer." The viral clip runs between the 1:58 mark and the 2:05 timestamp of the original 4:55-minute-long video.
Around the 2:00-minute mark of this clip, a person, who is not visible in the frame, can be heard saying "Alright Russ" to Cook, to which the runner responds with a thumbs-up gesture. Sunak merely looks at the person but otherwise does not react, as also seen in the viral clip. This greeting, directed at Cook, was replaced with an abusive comment in the viral clip. We watched the original video in full and noted that Sunak was not verbally abused throughout the run. Sunak and Cook were actually cheered at while jogging.
Cook, a runner and athlete, recently completed running the entire length of Africa. The video shows Cook chatting with Sunak about how he became involved in running, with the discussion eventually ending with their arrival at 10 Downing Street. The video ends with Cook taking a selfie in front of the official residence and office of the U.K. Prime Minister.
We found that several media outlets, including the BBC and The Telegraph, reported that Cook joined Sunak for a run and discussed how they both got into running. However, none of the reports mentioned that the prime minister was verbally abused or heckled at any point.
The video was also published from Sunak's YouTube channel (archive here) with the description, "Prime Minister Rishi Sunak goes for a morning run with Russ Cook - also known as Hardest Geezer - The first person ever to run the full length of Africa." Here, too, there was no instance of abusive comments being hurled at the Conservative party leader.
There is no evidence to suggest that Sunak was verbally abused while jogging with Cook. The abusive comments were digitally added to the original video.
The verdict
An edited video has been shared to falsely claim that Rishi Sunak was verbally abused while out jogging in London. The prime minister was not subjected to any abuse or heckling while he was out jogging with Cook, and the abusive comments were superimposed on the video.