News
Andy McSmith (edited
Dec 22, 2015
The Sun has been ordered to publish a front page correction for a story which falsely claimed Jeremy Corbyn only agreed to be initiated as a Privy Councillor because his party stood to gain financially.
A complaint was made by a member of the public following a story published on the front page of the Sun on 15 September, when there was speculation about whether the Labour leader would become a Privy Councillor.
Under the headline - "Labour hypocrite: Leftie who hates the Royals WILL kiss Queen's hand to grab £6.2m" - the article falsely alleged that Mr Corbyn's motive in becoming a Privy Councillor was to secure state funding for the Labour Party.
Under legislation passed 40 years ago, all opposition parties are entitled to what is known as "Short money" to pay the salaries of researchers and other aides.
When challenged over the article, the Sun argued that the grant to the leader's office might be withheld if the leader refused to join the Privy Council - something which has never happened since state funding of opposition parties began.
Here's the correction on the front page
And here it is explained on page two
Ipso found the claim was not true. The Ipso Complaints Committee ruled that "it was significantly misleading to claim as fact that Labour's access to Short money (either the £6.2m, or the £777,538.48 [to cover office expenses]) was conditional on Mr Corbyn's joining the Privy Council; the two were not directly connected."
Mr Corbyn has reiterated his calls for a break-up of big media corporations: "What I don't get is the way in which the media, particularly the print media, can be routinely abusive and feel that is perfectly OK."
Read the Independent's full coverage of the Sun's correction here
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