The i Paper has a useful overview by Lizzie Dearden of how the Keir Starmer “rent boy” conspiracy theory spread on social media following acts of arson at properties linked to the prime minister:
Less than 15 minutes after [Roman] Lavrynovych was arrested, and before the arrest was made public by the police, an account on X describing itself as a British “patriot” claimed to have the answer. “Angry unpaid rent boy,” it wrote in reply to a British news aggregator with more than 400,000 followers, which had reported the latest blaze.
No source for the false claim was provided, but after the police announced the arrest five hours later, the same account repeated the allegation in response to a prominent British far-right influencer. That influencer, who has around 340,000 followers, including Elon Musk, went on to post the “rent boy” narrative himself.
The news aggregator concerned, @PoliticsUK, posted at 4.06 pm on 12 May, and the “patriot” reply appeared at 2.02 am on 13 May. The reply looks like it was just a trolling off-the-cuff quip, but the timing is suggestive. The later “influencer” referenced but not named by Dearden is Dave Atherton, who cited “the rent boy saga” two weeks later to counter claims of likely Russian involvement in the arson. By this time, as noted by Dearden, the conspiracy theory was being spread openly by Russian media and officials. One detail that helped to boost the story was that Lavrynovych’s co-accused Stanislav Carpiuc had at one time attempted to find work as a model, and there are photoshoot images in which he looks particularly well groomed.
As I noted in April, the whole edifice collapsed as soon as the trial got underway: the case hinged on undisputed messages between Lavrynovych, his co-accused, and the person who hired them for the arson jobs, and these messages made clear that they didn’t know why they were being asked to target particular addresses. However, as Dearden notes on Twitter/X:
It is not in the interest of anyone who has been promoting this theory to admit it is false in the face of evidence from the trial, which they will present as a cover-up
A search of X just now shows people continuing to share the false “rent boy” claims roughly every two minutes.
During the trial, I noted how the reporting of details was being distorted and misinterpreted.
One commentator who continues to fan the flames is TalkTV’s Jeremy Kyle. Here’s how he framed the story two days ago in conversation with Reform UK’s Sarah Pochin MP, sneering incredulously and citing his own ignorance as evidence that something is amiss:
On a serious note, Sarah, straight face, our prime minister, we are told, was attacked by a foreign state. His front door was bombed. His car was firebombed. And then the Russians started a conspiracy about two Ukrainian rent boys, keep your face straight. Why have we heard nothing about it?
In reply, Pochin smirked that Russia would have no reason to “bother” with Starmer, adding that “there’s some information missing on this story” and that “they’re trying to brush something under the carpet”. Their exchange is on YouTube under the title “Pochin Challenges Claims Of Russia Behind PM Arson Attack”.
Kyle also spoke with the Conservative Party’s Matt Vickers, asking
But why would Russia start a conspiracy theory that two rent boys allegedly from Ukraine or was it somewhere else off Grinder?… Um, it’s just an extraordinary story, isn’t it?
Vickers’ response was “Extraordinary story. Smoke, fire” and to joke that Starmer is doing “a pretty canny job of blowing himself up” – remarks that have been criticised by Labour. That video is on YouTube as “Two Ukrainian Rent Boys Behind Arson Attack Targeting Keir Starmer?”.
Kyle’s worthless segments exploit the fact that we don’t know exactly what the person who commissioned the arson was attempting to achieve by it. It seems unlikely that this person’s primary aim was to spread the “rent boy” smear, although Russia made use of it opportunistically following Lavrynovych’s arrest. The case for a Russian paymaster is laid out convincingly by the BBC and the Financial Times, with the BBC identifying specifically one Evgeny Lyukshin, who is “23 and the son of a senior official”.
Perhaps, had the arsonists not been arrested, subsequent acts would have been falsely attributed to some ideological group – Islamist, far right, whatever. But Russian involvement need not imply some carefully considered grand strategy emanating from the Kremlin; a well-connected Russian young man wanting to impress more powerful figures or just enjoying the thrill of being part of “the struggle” (likely well away from the front line in Ukraine) may well have decided to use their own initiative on schemes intended primarily to show off their capabilities and potential. He wouldn’t be the first.
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