rishi sunak green ring binder

Did Rishi Sunak “magically” make a ring binder turn green? Fact Check

ByCraig Haley

A video of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak leaving Downing Street has re-emerged which apparently shows the then-Chancellor holding a burgundy binder which “miraculously” turns green midway through a video.

The video was originally taken in 2020 as part of Sky News segment on the budget, when Sunak was the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, and shows Sunak leaving Downing Street with a red folder or binder under his right arm. The binder is temporarily obstructed from view behind a parked car as Sunak walks towards Downing Street’s Whitehall exit, before re-emerging and changing colour to green.

An example of the video on social media is below –

To the best of my knowledge Rishi Sunak will be the first Prime Minister who can magically change the colour of ring binders…

Despite many speculating that Sunak seemingly possessed some magical ability to change the colour of ring binders (an interesting attribute to a Prime Minister, certainly) the reality is far more mundane.

Despite the video re-emerging in 2022, the explanation to the “magical” ring binder was actually offered back in 2020 by Sky News presenter Jonathan Samuels on Twitter, who explained that the video had been digitally edited by a Sky News “climate change correspondent and her video editor” who were doing a segment on how “green” the new budget would be (it was that segment that the altered video initially appeared.)


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But the editing proved to be a little too subtle with many missing the change in colour, which consequently led to confusion later down the line when an isolated clip of the changing ring binder ultimately resurfaced.

Jonathan’s tweet explaining the video is here –

As such, the answer to the changing ring binder is perhaps the most obvious answer. It was indeed down to some digital manipulation.