Tony Blair has hit out at the press regulator’s rejection of his complaint about a Daily Mail article, saying the decision is proof of a “major failure” at the heart of the Independent Press Standards Organisation.
The former prime minister’s spokeswoman said he embarked on the complaints process “in good faith”, but the decision not to order a retraction of the article shows that “the truth counts for little in the eyes of Ipso”.
“Ipso failed to investigate the clear and unambiguous facts of our complaint and ignored evidence from the only people who know the truth of the matter, preferring to lend more weight to those twice or three times removed from the conversation,” said the spokeswoman at The Office of Tony Blair.
“We are disappointed by Ipso’s ruling which shows a major failure at the heart of the new regulatory process. It would seem that the truth counts for little in the eyes of Ipso.”
Ipso published a ruling on Thursday rejecting Blair’s complaint about a Daily Mail article that accused him of trying to “wriggle out” of an investigation by a committee of MPs.
The article, published in January, reported that Blair contacted the speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, after being summoned to appear before the Northern Ireland affairs committee inquiry into so-called IRA “comfort letters”.
The Mail asserted that Blair did so to try to “wriggle out” of giving evidence to the committee and claimed that Bercow “ripped into” the former prime minister in response.
The article carried a comment from Blair disputing this. Ipso said Bercow confirmed that he was not asked to overturn the summons “order” and that the conversation with Blair was cordial.
“As we made clear at the time, the Daily Mail’s central allegation regarding Mr Blair’s phone call with the speaker is untrue,” said Blair’s spokeswoman. “Furthermore, the speaker has also completely rejected their characterisation of this conversation. We believed that, given the evidence from the only people able to comment accurately on the conversation, Ipso would rule accordingly.”
Ipso backed the Daily Mail, which said that Bercow’s “limited denial” did not affect the article’s central claim that Blair had attempted to avoid appearing.
In defence, the Mail provided a copy of a letter from the chair of the committee to Blair about his “continuing lack of response to the committee’s invitation”, adding that it was “disrespectful to the House [of Commons]”.
The newspaper also said that it had built the story from speaking to numerous sources, including members of the committee, which it did not name.
“While [Ipso] does not dispute the truth of the statements made by Mr Blair and the speaker it has decided for reasons that are difficult to understand that the Daily Mail was justified in publishing the article not because they had a reasonable belief that it was true, but because it was presented as being based on a claim by anonymous sources,” she said. “Therefore, we are astonished that Ipso has decided not to uphold the complaint.”
- This article was amended on 4 September 2015. The Daily Mail claimed that Blair contacted Bercow, not the other way around. This has been corrected.
