A Conservative minister has accused a Labour MP of “misleading” the public after he shared what she described as a “fake image” of the prime minister on Twitter.
Karl Turner, the MP for Hull East, posted a picture of Rishi Sunak pulling a pint at the Great British beer festival on Tuesday, seemingly being disapproved of by an onlooker.
The post quickly gained attention on the social media platform, with many users questioning its authenticity. Responding to Turner’s post, Michelle Donelan said: “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.”
The science secretary then retweeted the “original” photograph, which was posted on the prime minister’s account and did not feature the disapproving side-eye. The picture also confirmed that the pint of beer that Sunak pulled had been replaced with one featuring a badly poured head of foam.
On Wednesday night Turner posted an apology online. “My apologies for sharing what turns out to be a fake image of the PM,” Turner said. “But can I just say that @RishiSunak need to stop telling deliberate lies to the nation.
“We desperately need a general election. Also my apologies for not attributing the image. I had no idea it was fake.”
The Labour chairman of the Commons business and trade committee, Darren Jones, earlier came to Turner’s defence, saying: “The real question is: how can anyone know if a photo is a deepfake?
“I wouldn’t criticise Karl Turner for sharing a photo that looks real to me. What is your department doing to tackle deep fake photos, especially in advance of the next election? Let’s have that discussion.”
