Did The Daily Telegraph publish an article by Fiona Parker reporting that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is considering "emergency detainment camps" on the Falkland Islands? No, that's not true: The publication said, "No such article has ever been published by the Telegraph." There is no publicly available information showing Starmer is planning such camps.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X, formerly Twitter, on August 7, 2024, under the caption "He won't send illegal immigrants to Rwanda but he will consider sending Brits to the Falklands... #TwoTierKeir." The meme showing the fake headline and subheading said:
Keir Starmer considering building 'emergency detainment camps' on the Falkland Islands
The camps would be used to detain prisoners from the ongoing riots as the British prison system is already at capacity
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Aug 8 15:55:58 2024 UTC)
The post provided no documentation or other independent evidence to support its claim that The Telegraph published such a report by its senior news reporter Fiona Parker.
The Daily Telegraph
The British newspaper forcefully pushed back against the fake story in a post (archived here) to its X account on August 8, 2024. It said:
The Telegraph is aware of an image circulating on X which purports to be a Telegraph article about 'emergency detainment camps'.
No such article has ever been published by the Telegraph.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Aug 8 16:29:25 2024 UTC)
A search for the story on The Telegraph website on August 8, 2024, produced no results. It said:
We couldn't find anything for 'Keir Starmer considering building "emergency detainment camps" on the Falkland Islands'.
Google searches
Lead Stories searched using keywords on Google, visible here (archived here), and found no credible evidence of such a Telegraph headline or that the British prime minister was considering "emergency detainment camps" in the Falklands.
Elon Musk
X owner Elon Musk shared and amplified the false social media claim, which was originally posted by far-right British politician Ashlea Simon and generated more than 900,000 views before he deleted it.
BBC journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh retweeted (archived here) Musk's post on his own X account on August 8, 2024. The reporter said:
Elon Musk shared a completely fake Daily Telegraph headline posted by Britain First's co-leader about 'detainment camps on the Falkland Islands' for UK rioters to his 193 million followers and then deleted it without any explanation.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Aug 8 17:11:53 2024 UTC)
UK riots
The fake headline appeared on social media amid far-right riots and anti-immigration protests (archived here) in the United Kingdom, following a mass stabbing in Southport, England, on July 29, 2024, in which three girls died.
Read more
Additional Lead Stories fact checks that mention British Prime Minister Keir Starmer can be read here.
