The Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) has cleared a Daily Telegraph article that urged its readers to join Labour and vote for Jeremy Corbyn to be its next leader in order to damage the party.
The regulator said 26 people complained that the article, which was headlined “How you can help Jeremy Corbyn win – and destroy the Labour party”, breached its code of ethics.
They claimed – variously – that the article constituted harassment, that it was inaccurate and that the Telegraph had not given a proper right of reply to people it mentioned.
They also claimed it amounted to subterfuge, that it was discriminatory and that it breached a rule that regulates how journalists should approach stories related to their own financial interests.
After considering each claim individually, Ipso contacted each of the complainants to say they did not have sufficient grounds to take the matter any further.
In the piece, the Telegraph advised readers that they could gain the right to vote in the Labour leadership election by paying £3. It urged them to do so and to vote for Corbyn, who it felt was the candidate least likely to defeat the Conservatives.
The article prompted Corbyn, who is ahead of his Labour leadership rivals in the polls, to urge the party to root out anyone who followed the Telegraph’s advice.
His spokesman said: “Though this a pure media stunt, Labour has in any case robust mechanisms to root out anti-Labour people from participating and we urge constituency Labour parties and members to shop anyone to the party who may have tried to sign up on this basis.”
There was a largely negative reaction to the article, including among the Telegraph’s own readers, some of whom said it was “tribal”, “ridiculous” and an “infantile joke”.
Corbyn was not among those who complained and his representative declined to comment.
An Ipso spokesman said: “We have now responded to all 26 complainants regarding the article headlined “How you can help Jeremy Corbyn win – and destroy the Labour party” published by the Daily Telegraph on 15 July 2015.
“Having completed an assessment of the complaints about the article under the terms of the editors’ code of practice, we have concluded that the complaints received do not raise a possible breach of the code.
“Complainants are entitled to request a review of the decision by the Ipso complaints committee and have seven days in which to make that request.”
A spokesman for Telegraph Media Group did not respond to a request for comment.
