An image that appears to show the new MP for Makerfield, Andy Burnham, standing next to several women who are wearing Islamic dress, is circulating on social media.

The picture has been shared on X and Facebook with the caption “Different face, same religion. Starmer 2.0.” But this image has been edited to include several women wearing hijabs and niqabs who were not in the original photo posted by the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Lucy Powell MP, on 22 June.

The original photo shows Mr Burnham standing alongside Ms Powell and Jessica Morden on the day he returned to Parliament following his victory in the Makerfield by-election. Both women have been removed in the edited version, but other figures in the background, including the chancellor Rachel Reeves and former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, are standing in the same position in both images.

Other images published on the day show the same scene of Mr Burnham with Labour Party colleagues from different angles. There are no genuine images of Mr Burnham standing in this location on this date with a group of women who are wearing Islamic dress in the front row.

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Mr Burnham is so far the only candidate to have announced a bid to replace the Labour leader and Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer.

Although it may be obvious to some people that the image isn’t real, it received a number of ‘angry’ reactions and comments on Facebook appearing to come from those who believed it was genuine.

We recently wrote about another fake image of Mr Burnham circulating online that appeared to show him meeting a group of men of Asian heritage.

It’s important to rely on sources that are trustworthy and verifiable before sharing content which you see on social media. Our toolkit has tips on how to do this.

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