Nigel Farage was forced to deny he had a bust-up with the Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey on the set of Question Time after X was flooded with fake AI content.
The Reform UK leader responded to images of him seemingly brandishing a gun and collaring Mr Bailey by insisting he would ‘never take it that far’.
He wrote in a post on X: ‘You may have seen some bizarre AI videos on this platform today.
‘Whilst Andrew Bailey and I have our disagreements, I would never take it that far!’
Mr Bailey said the AI-generated deepfakes were bait posted by scammers attempting to exploit the public.
Reposted by dozens of different X accounts, the faked images showed various angles of a furious-looking Farage physically attacking Britain’s top banker – sometimes armed with a pistol.
In some instances, police officers and security guards appear to be holding the two men apart, and in one shot Mr Farage seems to be booting Mr Bailey up the backside.
The adverts link to fake news articles encouraging visitors to sign up for an investment scheme.
Fake AI-generated images appeared to show Nigel Farage in a violent confrontation with Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey
One image seemingly showed the Reform UK leader booting the banker up the backside
The posts were shared by dozens of X accounts, which Mr Bailey linked with a cyber scam targeting social media users
The posts linked to fabricated news stories that would encourage people to sign up to investment schemes
How should we tackle the rise of AI deepfakes spreading dangerous lies about public figures?
The webpages are complete with fabricated headlines, such as: ‘How Nigel Farage Exposed the Bank of England’s Elite Secret Live on Television’.
The posts on X claim to be sourced from an episode of the BBC’s Question Time, in which a disagreement between Mr Farage and Mr Bailey descended into violence.
One version purports that the banker stormed off the set after a ‘full-blown confrontation’.
Mr Bailey has, in fact, never appeared on Question Time.
The governor warned that adverts impersonating the Bank of England were increasingly common.
Staff at the Bank of England have been reporting the adverts to X for removal, and Mr Bailey urged other users to do the same.
He told The Telegraph: ‘These scams are designed to criminally exploit the public, especially the vulnerable, when they are online. I would urge everyone to stay vigilant and report these scams.
‘That way authorities can better root out digital deception like this and permanently remove the fraudsters responsible for what is a truly online scourge.’
This is not the first time investment scams have been found deploying fake images of Mr Bailey – with analysts at Bitdefender linking the content that appeared on Monday with a previous campaign on Facebook.
They said the network appeared to be tied to Russian-language cyber criminals.
Mr Farage, Mr Bailey and X were approached for comment.
