The Daily Mail was justified in reporting that businessman Douglas Barrowman made millions from tax avoidance schemes that led to suicides, according to press regulator IPSO.
Barrowman, the husband of Tory Peer Baroness Michelle Mone, 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.
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”.
Related
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.”
Read the Douglas Barrowman versus Daily Mail IPSO ruling in full.
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
