Fact check: Photo of Rishi Sunak’s mother’s pharmacy is from the 2000s

Mr Sunak had said he did not have Sky TV growing up.

Tuesday 23 July 2024 12:09 BST

Rishi Sunak during a visit to his family’s old business, Bassett Pharmacy, in Southampton in 2022 (Stefan Rousseau/PA) (PA Archive)

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(Updated, adding more details about process in paragraph 6)

A photograph of the pharmacy that formerly belonged to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s family is being used to claim that he did have Sky TV growing up.

The photo appears to show a satellite dish mounted to the wall outside the pharmacy.

Evaluation

The photo being shared was taken after May 2008, long after Mr Sunak had become an adult.

The facts

In a clip of an ITV interview which was released on June 12, Mr Sunak said he had gone “without lots of things” as a child. When pressed for an example he said: “Sky TV, that was something that we never had growing up.”

The photo circulating on social media shows what appears to be a satellite dish outside his mother’s pharmacy, called Sunak Pharmacy.

According to the website Geograph the photograph that has been used to claim that the Sunak Pharmacy had a satellite dish was taken and uploaded to the site in late 2013. The Geograph page was found using a reverse image search.

Images on Google Street View confirm that the photograph must have been taken after October 2008. The sign for the dental practice next door to Sunak Pharmacy changed at some point between October 2008 and May 2011.

It is the signage which can be seen in the May 2011 Street View which is visible in the photograph being shared on social media.

By 2008 Mr Sunak, who was born in May 1980, would have been 27 or 28 years old.

It is not possible to tell from these photographs when the satellite dish was installed. However the photograph used does not prove that it was there in Mr Sunak’s childhood.

An undated photograph of the Sunak Pharmacy shared by Mr Sunak on Instagram does not show the satellite dish. However because that is undated it is impossible to know how old Mr Sunak was at the time.