Video of UK PM Keir Starmer Visiting a Temple Shared With Misleading Claim

The video of UK PM Keir Starmer visiting a Hindu temple in London was shared a week before he became prime minister.

The video predates Starmer's win by one week.

(Source: Facebook/Altered by The Quint)

A video of the new prime minister of UK PM Keir Starmer visiting a Hindu temple and participating in customs has gone viral on social media, where users are claiming that he "started his innings" by visiting London's Akshardham temple after being elected to power.

An archive of this post can be seen here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

(Archives of more such claims on social media can be seen here and here.)

But...?: The video is from June and predates Starmer's win.

• The results of UK's election were declared on 5 July, a week after this video was shot.

How did we find out?: We ran a social media search using the keywords 'Keir Starmer Temple visit' across platforms.

This led us to a post by Labour Party leader Primesh Patel, shared on 29 June, which showed visuals which were similar to the claim.

The post, which showed similar visuals, was shared on 19 June 2024.

(Source: X/Screenshot)

On Starmer's official X account, we came across a video of his temple visit, shared on the same day.

This video resembled the video in the claim, and was shared with the caption, "My Labour Party will always be committed to building a Britain where all faith communities are safe and respected."

He had also shared photographs of him visiting the Swaminarayan Temple in Kingsbury, London in another post shared on the same day.

Starmer shared several photos of his visit to the Swaminarayan Temple 

(Source: X/Screenshot)

We noticed some similarities between these images and the viral video.

(Swipe right to view comparisons.)

One can see similar scenes, from a different angle, in both visuals.

One can see similar scenes, from a different angle, in both visuals.

Conclusion: A video of UK PM Keir Starmer has gone viral with the false claim that he visited a Hindu temple after being elected as prime minister.

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