Does footage show Boris Johnson pelted with plastic balls during 2019 conference? Fact Check

ByCraig Haley

A video of Prime Minister Boris Johnson being pelted with plastic balls is spreading online, with many captions claiming the video shows the PM arriving at the 2019 Conservative Party conference in Manchester.

FALSE

Example –

The good people of Manchester gave #Boris a well deserved welcome

The video was also shared by a British MP David Lammy.

While the footage is genuine, claims or implications that it is from the 2019 Conservative conference in Manchester are false. The footage was actually taken in 2015, during the Conservative Party conference, again in Manchester. Boris Johnson was the Mayor of London when the footage was taken.

Since the footage was from 2015, it has nothing to do with Brexit, which has dominated British headlines since the 2016 referendum. The protests were concerning cuts to disability benefits.

A Guardian article from the time shows the footage and provides the following caption –

Boris Johnson is pelted with plastic balls as he arrives at the Conservative party conference on Monday. Protesters are demonstrating outside the Tory conference in Manchester against cuts to disability benefits. Four people were arrested, although in the main the protests have been conducted with ‘dignity and good grace’, according to police

MP David Lammy since removed the footage from his Twitter account and apologised for sharing it.

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