It hardly takes a technological whizzkid to work out that the video of Sir Keir Starmer and Labour peer Lord Alli in a sexually charged clinch is an AI fake.

The blurry ten-second clip, which appears to have first surfaced on TikTok and has since clocked up millions of views across the internet, purports to show the two men kissing passionately outside the peer’s luxury home.

Claiming to be ‘leaked CCTV’ material, the footage is accompanied on some social media posts by a voiceover that says: ‘This isn’t just some private scandal - it’s a perfect metaphor for the kind of performative, backroom-dealing politics that both Starmer and Alli embody.’ It is, of course, referring to last year’s donation row which saw Lord Alli shower Sir Keir and senior ministers with over £310,000 in gifts and services, before receiving a Downing Street pass normally reserved for those working there.

The commentary goes on to describe them as looking ‘like characters from a tawdry soap opera’ who have now been ‘exposed under a streetlight and a security lens’.

Immediately, the disgusted comments started to flood in.

‘Not very professional is it from a Prime Minister who is also married. Terrible role model,’ remarked one individual on X.

The deepfake AI footage of Sir Keir Starmer 'kissing' Lord Alli

Another said: ‘This explains a lot of Starmer’s actions.’

Someone even posted an old photo of a casually dressed PM lugging a couple of heavy-looking suitcases - presumably to suggest that he’d been kicked out by the missus and was taking all his worldly possessions with him.

None of these commenters guessed this video was fake, despite the decidedly grainy nature of the clip or the skewed nature of the commentary - which misspelt Starmer’s name.

Indeed, the clip originally appeared on TikTok, created by an account dedicated to spreading conspiracy theories.

None of this comes as much of a surprise in the current climate. Sad to say, but we live in a world where fake news is becoming an increasingly powerful threat and everyone from the King to Nigel Farage and actress Scarlett Johansson have been victims.

It is just as regrettable that we also inhabit a world where social media often serves as judge, jury and executioner.

And, although this video is clearly fake, it is not the first time that Sir Keir Starmer and Lord Alli – who both gave no comment when approached by the Mail - have been the subject of public scrutiny.

First things first. There is absolutely nothing wrong with anyone, least of all the Prime Minister of the day, having wealthy friends.

But when we are talking about people who hold high office, there is a duty - not to mention an entirely reasonable expectation by the paying public - that these friendships are conducted with the utmost propriety.

This ordeal ultimately all goes back to the manner in which Lord Alli chooses to dispense his largesse - and the apparently puppy-like enthusiasm shown by Sir Keir in accepting it.

Of course, Lord Alli had been bankrolling the party as far back as the New Labour years. He has donated more than £600,000 over the past two decades, as well as footing bills totalling £112,348 for hospitality and staff costs.

But he is destined to always be remembered for the ‘freebiegate’ controversy after he gave suits worth £32,200 and spectacles costing £2,485 to Sir Keir, as well as £6,134 of dresses for his wife.

Lord Alli at a party in Berkeley Square, London, in 2009

Sir Keir Starmer speaks during a visit to meet British Steel workers in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, earlier this month

He also allowed the Starmers to use his £18 million penthouse in central London during last year’s election campaign - a stay later valued at £20,437.

Granted, other senior Labour figures were also beneficiaries of Lord Alli’s generosity - but none to the extent enjoyed by the party leader.

Needless to say, it all puts the revelation that Lord Alli previously had unrestricted access to No 10 - an extraordinary state of affairs in itself - into very sharp focus indeed.

Although there is, of course, no suggestion of a personal relationship such as the one suggested by the fake video, the warm welcome that Lord Alli now receives in Labour’s upper echelons is in stark contrast to his treatment by previous regimes. Under the leadership of both Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn, he was out in the wilderness.

But thanks to cosy relations with Sir Keir, the 60-year-old multi-millionaire - who was forced to apologise to the House of Lords' standards watchdog last October for failing to fully declare his interests in a charity and two companies - seems to have a guaranteed place at the top table once again.

None of it reflects well on the prevailing political culture, of course. But it shows the two men at the centre of it all in an even less flattering light.

While neither deserved to end up as the subject of a crudely made fake video aimed at discrediting them both in the cheapest manner possible, they might well ask whether they were, in some respects, the architects of their own misfortune.