The Daily Express has been compelled to admit that one of its articles on immigration was misleading, following a lengthy dispute with fact-checkers and a ruling by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO).
The controversy began in December 2023 when an opinion piece by then-Conservative Party Chair Richard Holden claimed that Labour’s migration policies would result in 100,000 more migrants entering the UK each year. The figure, however, was based on party-political estimates and was immediately challenged by the fact-checking organisation Full Fact.
Full Fact flagged the claim as incorrect, pointing out that it was based on flawed calculations. Despite this, the Daily Express and Holden continued to assert the accuracy of the figure.
“Within days, we published a fact check which concluded that the claim was misleading,” Full Fact stated. The Migration Observatory had also identified a mathematical error in the 100,000 figure, but the Daily Express doubled down on its claims, publishing the article on Boxing Day.
IPSO was eventually called in to investigate, and after a nine-month process, the regulator ruled that the article was “significantly inaccurate” and that a correction must be published. The ruling noted that the original piece failed to explain the basis of the estimate, which had been derived from Conservative Party projections about Labour’s potential participation in an EU relocation scheme.
As a result, the Daily Express has amended the article online, with a prominent correction at the top. The correction clarifies that the claim about 100,000 extra migrants was an estimate from the Conservative Party and not a factual figure. It further explains that the projection was based on assumptions that have been disputed.
The correction reads: “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 Daily Express‘s admission comes as a significant climb-down after months of resisting the fact-checkers’ findings, marking a rare public correction on the issue of immigration reporting.
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