In reporting on links between Vote Leave and BeLeave in Brexit referendum campaigning, we were wrong to suggest that Vote Leave’s operations director, Victoria Woodcock, had removed permissions for herself and others from a shared Google drive, of which she was the administrator.
Ms Woodcock has informed us that these changes were made by someone else, after Ms Woodcock’s own permissions to access the drive had been removed. We accept that the removals were done by someone else, using an account that was still bearing Ms Woodcock’s name. We accept that Ms Woodcock did not try to destroy evidence and that allegations of trying to thwart official investigations or pervert the course of justice do not fairly arise against her from this reporting.
After Ms Woodcock contacted us and clarified her role, we corrected and clarified the reporting online. We regret any distress caused (“Brexit insider claims Vote Leave team ‘may have broken law’ ”, News, 25 March 2018, page 1; “In a country where my decision as a voter matters, this is a huge deal ...”, the New Review, 25 March 2018, page 8).
Write to the Readers’ Editor, the Observer, York Way, London N1 9GU, email observer.readers@observer.co.uk, tel 020 3353 4736
