Spoof Video Peddled As Boris Johnson Questioned Over Lockdown Breach

Boris Johnson is facing calls to resign over allegations of gatherings during a strict Covid lockdown in 2020. The scandal has been dubbed as 'partygate'. Police are investigating 12 different gatherings at Downing Street and Whitehall. Johnson was present at three of those events.

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Fact Check

We did a keyword search on Google with text on the interview tape that appears at the 5 second mark, "AC 12 Interview: Operation BY0B Boris Johnson Interview"

This led us to a video by the Guardian. The video was titled as, "Boris Johnson questioned by Line of Duty team in Led by Donkeys video." The description of the video reads, "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 posted on Twitter on Tuesday and was swiftly retweeted by the Line of Duty writer Jed Mercurio with the words 'brilliant work'."

This makes it clear that the viral video is a work of fiction created using clips from the TV show 'Line of Duty'. 'Line of Duty' is a hit TV series about a fictional and controversial anti-corruption police unit AC-12. The show is created by Jed Mercurio.

The news outlet also wrote how the spoof video has gone viral and viewed by five million people, at the time. "Using clips from the television series cut with excerpts of Johnson's statements on so-called "partygate", it purports to show the prime minister being questioned by AC-12 investigators Ted Hastings, Steve Arnott and Kate Fleming as part of Operation BYOB," the Guardian reported.

The creators of the video 'Led by Donkeys' originally tweeted the video on January, 18, 2022 with a caption, "If you've got one shred of compassion for all those families who sacrificed so much, who lost so much, you'll go."

The group have said they are fully funded by the public and want to turn into a 'permanent campaign that challenges the powerful and holds the government to account.'

We also found that the first Boris Johnson byte used in the spoof video where he said, "… all the evidence I can see, people in this building have stayed within the rules … if that turns out not to be the case and people wish to bring allegations to my attention or to the police then of course there will be proper sanctions," is from a press conference held on December 8, 2021.

Watch the video from the 32 minute mark.

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