The claim: Image shows British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in front of ‘moron’ sign
A May 25 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) shows British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak partially blocking a sign behind him so that it reads “Moron.”
“A good photographer takes time to set up their shots,” reads text above the image.
The post was shared more than 300 times in about two weeks.
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Our rating: Altered
The image is a digitally altered photo from a real event where Sunak was in an identical position but with a different background.
Image is altered from real photos of food industry event
Sunak, who became the U.K.’s prime minister in late 2022, appeared at the Farm to Fork Summit held May 14 at Downing Street, where he was photographed standing in front of a sign for Morrisons, a U.K.-based supermarket chain.
However, the image in the Facebook post is a fabrication. It was altered from a legitimate Getty Images photo taken at the event that shows Sunak with the same expression but in front of a different background. While the letters of the Morrisons sign behind him are still partly obscured, they don’t spell anything – the letter “M” is cropped out and Sunak’s head blocks the letters “i,” “s” and “o.”
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Dozens of food and farming industry representatives attended the summit. Sunak announced the U.K.’s first food security index to show how the government tracks the country’s food security “on an annual basis, monitoring domestic food production, land use, input costs and farmer productivity,” a news release says.
USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Reuters and Check Your Fact also debunked the claim.
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