fakery

There are light, fond echoes of François Truffaut’s frolicking ode to cinematic fakery “Day for Night” and Ingmar Bergman’s bumpy ride on memory road “Wild Strawberries.”

But the story drew accusations of fakery, publicity-seeking and even tabloid newspaper claims that aliens had been in contact with locals.

“I was not looking to become the poster child of internet fakery, and I’m certainly not the first,” Curtis told The Times by phone Tuesday morning.

In late December, Badenoch had disputed Reform's claim that its membership had overtaken that of the Conservatives, accusing Farage of "fakery".

Far from raising questions about the clip’s veracity, it just fuelled backlash from people who thought the allegation of fakery was just an excuse or an attempt to evade accountability.