Eleven MPs have written a letter to the press watchdog urging it to rule on complaints by InFacts about inaccurate Brexit stories before voters go to the polls. The politicians have asked Sir Alan Moses, chair of the Independent Press Complaints Organisation (IPSO), to “fast-track your investigation into these particular complaints given the importance that the people are not misled when they vote on the 23rd June”.
On 19 May, InFacts lodged 11 separate complaints with IPSO relating to inaccurate articles in The Telegraph, The Mail Online and The Express. The stories cover migration, terrorism, crime and control of our borders. In some cases, more than one paper made similar errors. We believe each story contravenes the IPSO Editors’ Code of Practice, which states: “The Press must take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information or images, including headlines not supported by the text.”
IPSO was established in the wake of the Leveson inquiry to “uphold the highest professional standards of journalism in the UK”. It took two and a half months to rule that The Sun’s headline claiming “Queen backs Brexit” was “seriously misleading”. If this timescale applied to InFacts’ complaints, any ruling would occur after the referendum.
Below is a copy of the letter MPs have written to IPSO.
The 11 signatories are:
The Rt Hon Sir Nicholas Soames MP – former shadow secretary for defence, Conservative
The Rt Hon Damian Green MP – former minister for immigration, Conservative
The Rt Hon Caroline Spelman MP – former secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs, Conservative
Victoria Prentis MP – Conservative
The Rt Hon Sir Edward Garnier QC MP – former solicitor general for England and Wales, Conservative
The Rt Hon Tom Brake MP – former deputy leader of the House of Commons, Liberal Democrats
Dr Peter Kyle MP – Labour
The Rt Hon Dominic Grieve QC MP – chair of intelligence and security committee, former attorney general, Conservative
Chuka Umunna MP – former shadow secretary for business, innovation and skills, Labour
Stephen Kinnock MP – Labour
Emma Reynolds MP – former shadow secretary for communities and local government, Labour
Other inaccurate stories
InFacts has had some success getting publications to correct articles. The Daily Mail promptly corrected an article inaccurately suggesting 700 EU migrants were convicted of crimes each week. Although this story was in our original dossier, we did not report The Mail to IPSO because it was in dialogue with us at the time. We have encouraged The Telegraph and Express, which published similar stories about crime convictions, to correct their articles. We did complain to IPSO about these stories because neither paper dealt satisfactorily with our complaints.
After being contacted by InFacts on May 26, The Express updated an article suggesting the EU had dropped commitments to allow Britain to abolish the so-called “tampon tax” on sanitary products. It changed its headline from “Osborne HUMILIATED by Brussels: EU ‘drops’ agreement to exempt UK from tampon tax” to “EU denies MP’s claims it has ‘dropped’ Osborne’s agreement to exempt UK from tampon tax”.
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InFacts continues to contact newspapers about new errors in their Brexit coverage and is prepared to make further complaints to IPSO if the papers do not respond satisfactorily.
Edited by Hugo Dixon
The MPs are right – this is a crucial issue. As much as anything else, it is a test of IPSO itself.
Voters are forever complaining that they are not given the true facts. Arguably, IPSO have a duty to help support a fair basis of fact for voters in the EU Referendum.