There’s been a furious reaction after Sky News journalist Sam Coates repeatedly described pictures of Keir Starmer as “propaganda” and “fake news.”
After a day of calls for him to resign, Starmer carried out some prime ministerial duties as he visited a group of apprentices in London.
Images were the released of the visit, in which Starmer could be seen laughing and smiling.
Later in the day, Sky News showed these photos during their live broadcast from outside 10 Downing Street.
But as the photos, taken by the Press Association, were shown on screen, Sky News’ deputy political editor Sam Coates went on a bizarre rant about how they were “government propaganda.”
He told viewers: “We have to say about these stills, huge health warning on them, these are government propaganda photographs.”
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Believing the photos had been taken by Number 10, Coates said: “They’ll have taken 100 of them and they’ll only pick the ones of him [Starmer] smiling, so do not take these as concrete proof that he’s happy.”
“This is as close to fake news as we can get,” he added. “You can trust pictures when they come from Sky News or an accredited news agency like PA.”
“You’re looking at fake news pictures, that try to tell you a story, these pictures come from Number 10, so distrust the story you’re looking at.”
It was later pointed out to Coates by his colleague Mark Austin that the photographs had in fact been take by PA.
Coates’s comments sparked a furious reaction online, with many concerned about the fact he had accused Starmer’s government of spreading “fake news.”
Coates’s comments came towards the end of a day during which dozens of Labour MPs called for Starmer to resign as prime minister.
Starmer has so far resisted these calls, telling his Cabinet on Tuesday that he has no intention of stepping down.
On Wednesday, the Labour leader held a short meeting at Number 10 with Wes Streeting, who is widely considered to be one of the PM’s main leadership threats.
This comes ahead of the King’s Speech, in which King Charles will set out the government’s planned new laws.