Deepfake videos of Nigel Farage and the Bank of England governor, Andrew Bailey, fighting on the set of BBC One’s Question Time have prompted a fraud warning from the central bank. The AI-generated adverts, which repeatedly appeared to X users in the UK in recent days, show the two men grappling, with some depicting Farage holding a gun as police separate them. Farage told broadcasters on Tuesday he did not know “whether to laugh or whether to be angry” about the fakes, which he said “looks real in every way”.
Reform UK contacted X on Monday “to the highest level”, Farage said, adding he hoped the platform would remove the ads “incredibly quickly”. The Bank of England also urged users to report the videos. “Unfortunately, fake adverts impersonating the Bank of England and other central banks are on the rise,” Bailey said in a statement. “These scams are designed to criminally exploit the public, especially the vulnerable, when they are online.” He called on the public to stay vigilant and report the posts so authorities could “better root out digital deception like this and permanently remove the fraudsters responsible for what is a truly online scourge”.
“AI deepfake videos of Nigel Farage and Andrew Bailey fighting on Question Time spark Bank of England fraud warning”
Farage wrote on X on Monday evening: “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!” Speaking from Grangemouth, he said the problem was that the AI fakes looked real and people knew he and Bailey had clashed over economic policy. Many of the adverts were posted by accounts with blue ticks – a subscription badge that platform owner Elon Musk once touted as “the only realistic way to address advanced AI bot swarms”. Hovering over links in the posts showed they directed users to cryptocurrency trading schemes or apps. The Bank of England says it does not endorse any products.
The fake videos – which also show Farage kicking, grabbing and lunging at Bailey, with bruising visible – are part of a wider trend of AI-powered scams. Martin Lewis, the personal finance expert, has been a frequent target, warning of a “wild west” of online fraud. The UK’s Online Safety Act includes provisions requiring tech platforms to tackle fraudulent advertising, but those duties do not come into force until next year. X has been approached for comment. The platform explicitly bars impersonation intended to deceive, while its sister company xAI was embroiled in controversy this year after its Grok tool was used by members of the public to generate misleading content.