Was Boris Johnson Interrogated By British Police Following His Resignation? No, Viral Video Is A Spoof!

Following Boris Johnson's impending resignation as the UK's Prime Minister, a video is going viral across social media showing his alleged interrogation. The video, which shows Johnson talking about corruption in the UK, has been shared by netizens with interrogation claims.

On July 7, Johnson resigned as the UK's Conservative Party leader after several ministers quit his government. The former PM would remain interim Prime Minister until a replacement is elected.

Claim:

A 2:20 minutes video shows Boris Johnson sitting in a room with persons wearing officers' clothing. The video begins with an "AC-12 interview of Prime Minister Boris Johnson by Superintendent Hastings, DI Fleming, DI Arnott." One of the persons in the video says, "You do not have to say anything, but it might harm your defence…We've been asked to review your case. A case of a Prime Minister who's broken the law. A law you created. A law you made the whole country abide by…Too many of our institutions are failing the British public by turning a blind eye to your wrongdoing".

The video shows Boris Johnson being interrogated by these 'officers'. He is 'interrogated' over a 'VIP Lane' incident which had allegedly favoured selected companies for PPE contracts during the first wave of Covid-19 in the UK.

Netizens have shared a video showing Boris Johnson being 'interrogated' by 'police officers. Some have shared this as a post appreciative of the British police system.

A Facebook user shared the video and wrote, "INVESTIGATION* OF *BORRIS JOHNSON* - Ex. PRIME MINISTER OF UNITED KINGDOM. Salute to Brave Police & Investigation Officers of UK. Other countries & their investigation agencies must take a lesson from this."

In the video, the following text can be seen, "Can you imagine such a scenario taking place in India? Even a Municipal councillor cannot be touched here."

The video is viral across Twitter and Facebook.

The Logical Indian received several messages on our WhatsApp fact check no. +91-6364000343 requesting to fact check the claim.

Fact Check:

The Logical Indian fact check team verified the viral claim and found it to be false. The viral video is a spoof.

We used InVid's Keyframe Analysis tool to isolate the keyframes of the viral video. We then conducted a reverse image search on some of the keyframes which led us to this Facebook page, Led By Donkeys. After sifting through the Facebook page, we came across this video uploaded on July 6, 2022. The video is titled, "You are finished here Prime Minister."

Led By Donkeys is a British political campaign group established in December 2018 as an anti-Brexit group. The group has criticised actions of Boris Johnson's government and alleged political corruption as per this article in Prospect Magazine.

We then conducted a keyword search with the terms, "You are finished here Prime Minister". We came across the same video on the official Twitter handle of Led By Donkeys.

We also came across this article by The London Economic published on 7th July 2022. In the article, it is mentioned that the video is a spoof of the British TV show Line Of Duty.

Taking a cue from this, we identified the persons in the video as British actors Martin Compston (who plays DI Steve Arnott), Vicky McClure (who plays DI Kate Fleming) and Adrian Dunbar (who plays Superintendent Ted Hastings)

We also came across the entire version of the video uploaded by Led By Donkeys on YouTube. The video published on April 13, 2022, has a duration of 7 minutes and 16 seconds.

The video contains clips from the show Line of Duty interspersed with clips of Boris Johnson from his interviews. In the video, several actions of Johnson are criticised such as the alleged 'VIP Lane' for awarding Covid-19 PPE contracts, the Partygate controversy, and the wallpaper scandal at 11 Downing Street.

While searching across YouTube, we found that Guardian News had also shared a clip of the video on the official YouTube channel. The video was published on January 19, 2022. The caption of the video reads as follows, "The PM is questioned by AC-12 officers about lockdown breaches in a spoof episode of Line of Duty by the satirical artists Led By Donkeys."

The video was also shared by The Independent on 19th January 2022. The news outlet quoted the video as a 'parody'. The Independent report also mentions that footage of the Prime Minister addressing the public is "juxtaposed with snippets from Line of Duty".

The video gives the impression Johnson was being questioned for attending a gathering that many believe was against the law, the report says.

We came across a tweet by Jed Mercurio, a writer on the show Line of Duty. He praised the spoof video as 'Brilliant work'.

The video is an edited compilation of footage from Line of Duty and videos of Boris Johnson such as the one attached below.

Conclusion:

We found that the video is actually a clipped version of a spoof video produced by a political group, Led By Donkeys. The group is critical of Boris Johnson, and the video was created as a critique of the actions of him and his government.

The spoof video contained edited footage from the British TV show Line of Duty and videos of Boris Johnson. The video has been acknowledged as a spoof and a parody by publications such as The Guardian and The Independent.

Thus, we can determine that the video does not depict an actual incident but a scripted spoof video which has gone viral following Boris Johnson's impending resignation as the UK Prime Minister.

If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343.

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