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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Politics
Stephen Wood

Fact check: Image of London Mayor being arrested taken from sitcom Citizen Khan

Adil Ray’s sitcom Citizen Khan featured a cameo from Mayor of London Sadiq Khan (WENN Rights Ltd / Alamy) -

A still image post on the social network platform TikTok has claimed that Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has been arrested for “misconduct” in public office, accompanied by a photo of Mr Khan being held by a police officer.

Evaluation

Mr Khan has not been arrested for misconduct or any other charges, while the image of him being arrested is taken from a television sitcom.

The facts

The post on TikTok claimed to be “breaking news” and was posted on December 10, as determined by an online tool to identify when TikTok posts were uploaded. Since the post was made, Mr Khan has undertaken some official duties as Mayor of London, including attending a carol service organised by the Metropolitan Police at Westminster Abbey. He was not arrested.

The picture accompanying the post, showing Mr Khan being held by the arm by a police officer, is taken from the BBC sitcom Citizen Khan. Appearing in the first episode of series five, Sadiq Khan played himself in a scene that saw the police mistakenly arrest the Mayor instead of the titular Mr Khan, played by Adil Ray. The programme was first broadcast in November 2016.

Links

Original post on TikTok (archived)

TikTok post date finder (archived)

Post on X by @MayorofLondon, December 11 (archived)

BBC One – Citizen Khan, Series 5, Cricket (archived)

Clip from Citizen Khan on TikTok (archived)

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