Fact Check: Was Rishi Sunak seen partying shirtless in Ibiza? Viral video debunked
A recent viral video claimed that British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, was partying shirtless in Ibiza. The video was shared by Tam Khan on X (formerly known as Twitter) on August 7. It showed a man, who bears a striking resemblance to Sunak, holding a cup of alcohol in one hand while dancing to the camera with some crazy moves in an open-air club, surrounded by partygoers.
Tam Khan addressed Prime Minister Sunak in the caption of his post and asked him to get back to his office at London’s 10 Downing Street. He also called it ridiculous reasoning that Sunak was raving while the United Kingdom was in turmoil.
However, the video is not recent. It was originally posted on Instagram by Wayne Lineker, English broadcaster Gary Lineker’s brother who is also one of the owners of Ibiza’s Club O’Beach. Wayne shared the video for the first time on July 12, 2019. He reposted the video two more times in 2022, on January 21 and July 9.
The video has also been circulating on other social media platforms ever since as it resurges every once in a while. Wayne tagged Rishi Sunak in the caption of his January post and wrote that Sunak was trying to win over the Ibiza crowd in a voting campaign. Despite the internet claiming the shirtless dancing guy to be Sunak, quick research says otherwise.
Why the shirtless man in the viral Ibiza video is not Rishi Sunak?
After Tam Khan posted the video on X, it racked up over 1.5 million views. The clip had also gone viral on X previously in October 2022. Netizens were also amused after watching the video and a lot of people initially believed that it was the current Prime Minister of the UK.
But it turned out that the shirtless party-going man in the Ibiza video is only a look-alike. Though some people noted that the shirtless guy got too many dance moves to be Sunak and that it was very unlikely of the politician.
However, Boom Live, a fact-checking website did some investigation of Rishi Sunak’s social media accounts to find a connection between him and the Ibiza party. But no evidence of him being in Ibiza in July 2019 was found.
Instead, during that time, the British leader was attending a Q&A session with the students of North Yorkshire students on July 10, 2019. Sunak also posted a picture with the students on Facebook at the time. He was at a community event later on July 15.
It is highly impossible that in the days between July 10 and July 15, Sunak, who was the Chief Secretary to the Treasury of the United Kingdom, would have the time to rush off to Ibiza, indulge in wild partying for a few nights, and then return to his job in England. Rishi Sunak had also previously stated that he does not drink alcohol. So, it is unlikely that he was partying at a club with an alcoholic drink in his hand.
Apart from these fact-checks, a news outlet France 24 debunked the claim that the man in the video was Rishi Sunak on October 29, 2022, around the time when the video resurfaced on X. One correspondence of the channel noted that there is a visible mole on the British Prime Minister’s left cheek, which was missing on the man’s face from the Ibiza party video.
Though Rishi Sunak himself never addressed this viral video, all the aforementioned pieces of evidence together contribute to the conclusion that he was never seen partying shirtless in Ibiza back in July 2019.