No, this video doesn’t show Rishi Sunak struggling to use a hammer

By: Soham Shah
November 29 2023

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Post by the U.K. Labour Party mocking PM Rishi Sunak for not using a hammer correctly. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

What's the claim?

Posts on social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram have shared a video of the U.K.'s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak using a hammer sideways with captions such as, "🙄British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, doesn't even know how to use a hammer!" 

The official account of the opposition Labour Party also shared this video to mock Sunak, writing, "Not the son of a toolmaker … Man who hammers working people can't work a hammer." The archives of such posts can be found here, here, here, and here.

Post mocking Rishi Sunak for not using a hammer correctly (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, this claim is misleading due to a lack of context. In truth, Sunak was asked by the craftswoman to use the hammer sideways.

What's the truth?

According to The Independent, this video of Sunak was recorded at Emma White Jewellery Studio in Farsley. It shows jeweler and jewelry teacher Emma White showing Sunak how to hammer jewelry. The report also carries a longer unedited version of the video where White can be heard instructing Sunak to use the side of the hammer. She picks up a hammer and says, "Let's go with that one, but you're gonna use this bit," pointing to the side of the hammer. Sunak remarks, "Oh, sideways," to which she replies, "Yeah."

BBC journalist Ione Wells also shared this extended version of the video on X.

Former Conservative culture secretary Nadine Vanessa Dorries had also shared the video on X to mock the prime minister but deleted it after the longer version emerged, reported The Independent. 

The verdict

A longer, unedited version of the video shows that Rishi Sunak used the hammer sideways. as instructed by the craftsperson. Therefore, we have marked the post as misleading.