The football season may have restarted recently, but you’ll do well to find a bigger own goal than this in the coming months. The Daily Express has been forced into a humiliating climb-down, after they were forced to admit that one of their stories was ultimately ‘misleading’.
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A nine-month battle has played out between the fact-checkers at Full Fact and lawyers representing the Daily Express. In December 2023, an opinion piece – written by then-Tory Chair Richard Holden – claimed that Labour policy would allow 100,000 more migrants into the UK annually.
However, that assumption was based purely on party-political estimate. Full Fact immediately flagged the incorrect details behind the figures – but neither Holden nor the publication were willing to back down. Those behind the report even doubled-down on the data.
“Last September, the Conservative party and its representatives started to claim that 100,000 more migrants would enter the UK every year under Labour. Within days, we published a fact check which concluded that the claim was misleading.”
“The Migration Observatory had pointed out that the 100,000 calculation even included a mathematical error, but this didn’t stop Richard Holden, the Conservative Party Chair, from repeating the claim in a comment piece for the Daily Express published on Boxing Day.” | Full Fact
The Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) were engaged, and after a lengthy process, the body has been able to hold the Daily Express accountable – branding the article as ‘significantly inaccurate’, and ruling that a correction must appear in the online version.
To report as fact, and without explaining the basis, that the Labour Party’s plans for migration would see Britain take in an extra 100,000 illegal migrants a year was significantly inaccurate, taking into account the importance of readers being able to understand the context.” | IPSO
Visiting the article now leads readers to a startling admission. The first paragraph now features an amendment, which clarifies the mistruths in the original piece and provides context to the disputed numbers. It’s quite a sight to behold…
“CORRECTION: This article is misleading, as it reports as fact that Labour’s plans to ‘stop the boats’ would see Britain take in 100,000 extra illegal migrants. This is inaccurate – we should have made clear that this was a Conservative Party estimate.”
“The estimate is based on the assumption that a future Labour government would participate in an EU relocation scheme which has been disputed. This correction has been published following an upheld ruling by the Independent Press Standards Organisation.” | Daily Express
