The Telegraph have quietly corrected an article by Iain Duncan Smith published in March, after press watchdog IPSO (Independent Press Standards Organisation) ruled IDS had written an “inaccurate” claim about home schooling after Covid. The offending claim has since been deleted entirely from the text…

The article previously contained the following sentence:

“Some children are now being schooled at home. Whilst a number will be receiving a good education, sadly evidence shows that’s not true for the majority.”

According to IPSO, that evidence doesn’t actually exist. The Telegraph have now added:

“This article previously reported that evidence showed the majority of children schooled at home did not receive a good education. This was inaccurate as there was no available evidence to support the claim. This correction has been published following an upheld ruling by the Independent Press Standards Organisation.”

IDS is obviously right to push for improving children’s education. Kids are better off inside the classroom than outside it. Always best to show your workings though…

Press regulator IPSO (Independent Press Standards Organisation) have rejected complaints from Tory MP Jonathan Djanogly and his wife Rebecca Silk over reports the pair treated a housekeeper “worse than a slave“. The reports, published in the Sunday Mirror and the Sunday Telegraph, contained similar allegations from other housekeepers who’d tidied up after Djanogly over the years. Djanogly and Silk claimed the coverage was unfair, because an employment tribunal “did not find the two claimants to be mistreated, let alone be slaves“, and it was inappropriate to air their dirty laundry in public. The pair insisted they’re squeaky clean…

IPSO binned the complaints anyway, ruling the “slave” allegations were “clearly distinguished” as subjective labels, rather than statements of objective fact. The dust-up has been dismissed entirely, with IPSO adding

“The Editors’ Code of Practice does not address issues of bias, nor omission. It makes clear the press has the right to report one side of events, as long as it takes care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information, and to distinguish between comment, conjecture and fact.”

No doubt Djanogly will hope to sweep this under the rug…

Guido hears a line has finally been drawn under the row sparked from the Mail on Sunday by Glen Owen about Angela Rayner’s legs. In April the MoS published a now-notorious piece, “Tories accuse Angela Rayner of Basic Instinct ploy to distract Boris: MPs claim Labour deputy leader likes to put PM ‘off his stride’ by crossing and uncrossing her legs at PMQs”. At the time IPSA received over 6,000 complaints from pearl-clutching members of the public, however because many of the complaints related to accuracy they could only proceed were Rayner to put forward her side of the story.

“Such an investigation would not be possible without her involvement, and because of this, we declined to consider complaints made under this Code clause. This does not affect the ability of Ms Rayner to make a complaint on this point.”

Despite the story resulting in Glen Owen being hounded, and Dan Hodges revealing it was Rayner herself who made the comments while drinking with Tory MPs, Guido understands Rayner never got involved and as such IPSO has closed the investigation.

Asked for a comment on the above, IPSO told Guido, “Many thanks for your email. We have no comment.” Seven months to draw a line under the incident – and people say Britain has a productivity crisis…

IPSO has dismissed a complaint by Gordon Brown against the Spectator, over an article reporting that his office had received £124,494.99 for a four-hour speech for Sberbank in 2012. The Russian bank was sanctioned in February this year following the invasion of Ukraine. The primary basis of the former PM’s complaint was that the luxury all-inclusive speaking engagement — at a cost of £8 a second — was paid to ‘The Office of Gordon and Sarah Brown‘, rather than, as he believed the headline implied, him directly. This is not the first time Gordon has bullied newspaper editors.

Brown argued that “an apology was merited, where the inaccuracies were: serious; had caused significant personal distress; and had caused serious harm to his reputation.” His evidence included two tweets from members of the public. 

In short, IPSO ruled that “reading each version of the article as a whole, the true position was made clear: that the money paid by the bank for the complainant’s speech had not been received in a personal capacity, and was held by the office of the complainant and his wife.”

IPSO summed up their conclusion:

“The Committee did not find that any version of the article included significant inaccuracies or misleading information in need of correction.”

Gordon’s staffers should be on the lookout for flying paperweights this afternoon…

IPSO has contacted newspapers about recent coverage of the Passport Office’s current backlog. The current Director General of the Passport Office, Abi Tierney, is according to IPSO

“concerned about the presence of the press and photographers in the vicinity of her home in Leicestershire and wishes to make clear that she and her family do not wish to be approached for comment or photographed in the vicinity of her home”.

IPSO also tells newspaper editors that

“Dr Tierney will not be commenting on the story and asks that all requests for comment be directed to the Home Office Press Office”

Normally we have some sympathy for people swamped by press camped outside their home. Her press officer admits the crisis hit passport office boss “occasionally” works from home. So it is her place of work, even though it is 107 miles from her desk in the Victoria HQ.

Thousands of people are waiting for passports, holidays are being ruined and Abi Tierney needs to get her arse into gear and sort out the backlog. Or better still, resign. She can send her resignation letter by post, from home.

Yesterday Guido’s eye-witness report of Alastair Campbell’s ill-fated awards compèring clearly touched a nerve. Campbell spat back denying various aspects of the story. A dodgy dossier it was not…

Oh dear. Number 10 puppy ‘Guido’ getting a tad obsessed again. On Brexit,show of hands of 500 people in room, one said it was going well. Probably Puppy pal. On transition team we had what we call good banter and I said they did good job raising awareness Brexit happening 1/2 https://t.co/gD5EIAAQdU

— ALASTAIR CAMPBELL (@campbellclaret) November 10, 2021

Guido does have a correction to make regarding yesterday’s supposedly sexed-up story: Campbell claimed that our photo showing a table of his books had gone unsold, misrepresented the truth.

We now accept that was incorrect. Multiple sources tell Guido they were in fact made available free of charge. Couldn’t even give them away…