Does a video show British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken watching England score against The Netherlands in the Euro Cup? No, that's not true: While Starmer is in this video, he is watching the game with Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof, not Blinken. The original video came from a post on Starmer's verified official X account.
The image appeared in a post (archived here) on the X platform on July 10, 2024. The caption said:
❗️🇺🇸 | 🏴⚔️🇳🇱 - Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Keir Starmer with the Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken, watching Harry Kane's goal in the Euro Cup
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of the writing of this fact check:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu July 11 16:41:59 2024 UTC)
Using keywords, Lead Stories searched Google News for information about Starmer and Blinken supposedly watching the Euro Cup (also known as Euro 2024, or the European Championship), but found no credible documents or reporting to corroborate the claim. Our search is visible here.
A search of Starmer's verified official X account revealed a July 10, 2024, post (archived here) with the same video seen in the post with the claim. The video, however, featured Dutch Prime Minister Schoof instead of Blinken. Schoof's verified government X account (archived here). @MinPres, is tagged in the post and Schoof is, visually, unlikely to be mistaken for Blinken.
(Source: X screenshot taken on Fri July 12 16:27:00 2024 UTC)
On July 10, 2024, in an article titled, "Starmer sees Harry Kane's equaliser in break from Nato meetings," the British newspaper The Standard reported:
The Prime Minister got out of his seat as the spot-kick was drilled home, then shook hands with the Netherlands' Dick Schoof.
In a July 10, 2024, X post (archived here), Schoof confirmed that he was at the 2024 NATO Summit in Washington, DC. The caption said in part:
So it is good that the Alliance's heads of state and government have gathered here in Washington, DC to mark NATO's 75th anniversary.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks of claims about Euro 2024 can be found here. Lead Stories fact checks that mention British Prime Minister Keir Starmer can be read here.
