The Daily Mail has clarified a story claiming Labour would cost every British family £4,000 – five months after it appeared.
Rob Watkins complained to the Independent Press Standards Organisation over a front=page story headlined “Corbyn’s fantasy land” which appeared ahead of the last general electioon on 12 May.
The sub-headline of the article reported that the Labour Party manifesto launched before would “cost every family £4,000”.
The article stated that the pledges made in the manifesto would cost £93 billion pounds a year to implement, and reported that, based on the figures provided by the Labour party, this would cost families an average of £4,000 each.
The complainant said the sub-headline misleadingly suggested this £4,000 was a fixed cost for every household would have to pay if the Labour Party won the election.
The Daily Mail said that the sub-headline was to be read in conjunction with the article, which made clear that the £4,000 was a household average.
After mediation brokered by IPSO the Mail agreed to publish the following clarification on page two:
“The headline to an article on 12 May, based on a leaked draft of the Labour party’s election manifesto, said that Labour’s ‘class war manifesto would cost every family £4,000’.
“We are happy to clarify that, as the article stated, the £4,000 was an average figure and did not represent an estimate of the amount Labour was planning to raise in taxes from each family.”
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