Photo: Twitter
Press regulator IPSO has thrown out a complaint filed by the husband of Tory Peer Baroness Michelle Mone.
Douglas Barrowman had claimed an article headlined: “How Baroness Bra’s (equally flashy) husband made £300m from dubious tax-avoidance schemes that ruined thousands and led to two suicides” was inaccurate.
But after considering the piece, IPSO has ruled that the Daily Mail was justified in its reporting.
The piece, from January 2024, reported that Barrowman was “behind a company that, for most of the 2010s, sold flawed tax schemes to mostly middle-class workers”.
It said that, when the scheme “unravelled”, “clients were left facing huge tax bills”, and it reported many were “financially ruined and at least two former customers of his firms have since committed suicide”.
Barrowman argued the deaths had come about because of HMRC’s conduct in recouping the funds, not because of the scheme itself or his actions.
The article also described Barrowman as a “roly-poly Scottish businessman” with “cocktail-sausage fingers” and “recently bleached teeth”.
IPSO ruled that the Daily Mail article was not inaccurate because saying the scheme “led to” suicides did not apportion responsibility.
It also said: “The committee appreciated the complainant found the article’s description of his physical appearance to be insulting. However, clause one does not address issues of offence,” referring to the accuracy portion of the Editors’ Code of Practice.
“Newspapers are free to publish what they choose provided the code is not otherwise breached.”
Related: Stephen Fry says Austrian citizenship is a ‘finger up to Brexit’
