A video (here, here, and here) of the new Prime Minister of the UK, Keir Starmer, allegedly visiting the Akshardham temple in London after he became the PM has gone viral on social media. It is claimed that he started his innings as the new PM (here and here) ‘by visiting’ this temple. We fact-check this claim through this article.
Claim: Visuals of the new Prime Minister of UK Keir Starmer visiting the Akshardham temple in London after assuming office.
Fact: Although Keir Starmer did visit the temple (Shree Swaminarayan Mandir-Kingsbury), as seen in the viral video, the video was from June 2024, when he was not the PM of the UK. He was elected as the PM on 5 July 2024. Hence, the claim made in the post is Misleading.
To check the veracity of the viral video, we performed a keyword search on the internet, which led us to the original full-length version of the viral video uploaded to Facebook by Shree Swaminarayan Mandir-Kingsbury. This video contains the same visuals seen in the viral video.
According to the description of this video uploaded on 29 June 2024, Keir Starmer visited the Shree Swaminarayan Mandir in Kingsbury, London, to seek the blessing of Lord Shree Swaminarayanbapa Swamibapa.
According to their website, he visited the temple on 28 June 2024, which was a few days before he became the Prime Minister of the UK, on 5 July 2024.
News reports regarding this visit can be seen here, here, and here.
The Labour Party leader posted a few pictures and a video of this visit on his ‘X’ on 28 and 29 June 2024 (here and here), respectively.
To sum up, a video that predated Keir Starmer assuming the office as PM of the UK on 5 July 2024 is falsely being shared as visuals of his visit to a Hindu temple after becoming the PM.
