Unlike every other paper, the Daily Mirror has been going quite hard after the Conservatives, with a series of tough articles examining their leading lights and the state of their piggy bank. Interesting to turn to page 10 of the paper today and note this lengthy correction about Michael Spencer, the Conservative party treasurer. The correction refers to an article published on 10 February that is no longer online. The paper accepts that its allegation that Spencer, chief executive of Icap, had "cashed in" on the 9/11 tragedy by poaching staff from a rival was "wholly unfounded".
As the paper wrote:
"We claimed that Icap and its chief executive, Michael Spencer, exploited the 9/11 tragedy by poaching staff from Cantor Fitzgerald, a rival company who had brought proceedings against Icap in 2002. We now accept that the article contained a number of material inaccuracies ... We also accept that Mr Spencer did not breach a promise not to poach staff at Cantor and that it was Cantor who had rejected Mr Spencer's offer of a mutual 'no poach' deal which he made shortly after the 9/11 tragedy. It follows that our allegation that Mr Spencer had 'cashed in on 9/11' was wholly unfounded. We offer Mr Spencer and Icap our sincere apologies for these errors and for any distress caused to him. We have agreed to make a substantial contribution to a charity of Icap's choice."
Will this apology, made after a legal complaint, derail the paper's anti-Tory strategy? Definitely not.
