A VIDEO THAT appears to show former taoiseach Leo Varadkar complaining about immigrants uses real footage, but swaps out the audio and subtitles to deceive viewers into thinking he is saying something else.

The actual video comes from a Euronews interview in which he looked back at the UK’s choices around Brexit.

“My main reflection is that of doubt,” Varadkar appears to say to camera in a video that has been seen more than 32,000 times since being posted on Facebook on 7 July.

“We’ve certainly seen too many Indians,” he continues. “I actually wanted to escape India so I wouldn’t see so many Indians.”

Varadkar was born in Dublin, Ireland. One of his parents, his father, was born in Indian, but left in the 1960s. 

The video goes on: “That’s the plan from Europe, and that’s what happens when you follow orders.”

The person who posted also responded to comments saying that it was AI-generated simply saying it was “not AI”.

There are no signs that the audio is AI-generated — in a later post, the same person who posted the video of Varadkar implied that he was doing an impression and dubbing his voice over Varadkar’s. That later post was viewed only 1,100 times.

This suggestion is consistent with the Varadkar video. The voice is not an exact match for Varadkar’s, and the video and audio do not entirely match up. However, as many people watch videos on silent with the captions on, these inconsistencies would not be apparent.

The footage used in the Facebook post is taken from a real interview, posted by Euronews on 24 June, in which Varadkar talks about Brexit.

In that video, Varadkar tells Irish journalist Shona Murray that he hopes that one day the UK rejoins the EU.

“My main reflection is one of regret. I still think it was the wrong decision,” he says of Brexit.

“I think it was part of a broader trend internationally of increased populism and increased nationalism.”

The real video has only 11,000 views. This means that there are at least 19,900 people who saw the dubbed video, which had no indications that it was fake, and who did not see the later post suggesting it was dubbed, or the original undubbed video.

The fake audio in the video echoes anti-Indian views that are common amonh Irish anti-immigrant groups. 

This video would fall under the general category of a “cheapfake”, a deceptive video that uses more primitive techniques than AI-generated “deepfake” videos.

Cheapfakes don’t use AI to change how Varadkar’s mouth moves, or generate audio using samples of his voice as a template, or even an entirely new video. Rather, they use crude editing techniques, such as replacing the audio file with a new recording, to make a quick fake that doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. 

Notably, ahead of the 2025 presidential election, a convincing video was posted online in which Catherine Connolly announced her withdrawal from the race. That video was faked using AI-generative technology, and Connolly would go on to become Ireland’s next President. 

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