Thursday’s Daily Mail front-page splash, headlined “We’re from Europe – let us in!”, detailed a Metropolitan police operation which found a family of migrants stowing away in the back of a lorry.
A similar story also appeared as a double-page spread in The Sun on Thursday, with the headline: “We’re from Europe”.
The June 16 Mail front page
The Sun, 16 June
Both papers soon corrected their stories – the Daily Mail on page 2 of Friday’s edition, and the Sun on page 2 of Saturday’s, in both cases acknowledging that the migrants told police they were from Iraq and Kuwait, not Europe.
“Asked where they were from, they replied: ‘Europe’”, according to The Mail’s original story. In fact, as is audible in the video footage of the raid, helpfully provided by the Mail Online, the family in the back of the lorry said “Iraq” and “Kuwait”, statements which are then repeated by the police officer. Listen for yourselves:
In both cases, the story was presented alongside coverage of the referendum, with The Mail going on to note that “under the free movement edict, 500 million EU citizens enjoy free access to the UK”.
That the migrants, including several children, were not EU citizens should be obvious. If they were, why would they have attempted to hide in the back of a lorry? Nor would the adults in the group have been arrested on suspicion of illegal entry into the UK, as a spokesperson for the Metropolitan police confirmed to InFacts they were.
The correction which appeared in the June 17 edition of the Mail
The Sun correction
This article was amended on 20 June to reflect the correction by the Sun.
Edited by Hugo Dixon
From an article in Paris Match – ” Chaque jour la presse Britannique populaire pilonne sans faiblir”. Daily, the popular British press relentlessly attacks (the EU).
Brexit Horribilis