A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine asked me about an article in the Telegraph by Iain Dale entitled “Trans activism is eroding tolerance in politics” which included this passage:

Last weekend, in a little noted decision, the Liberal Democrat Spring Conference passed a motion which urged anyone in the party who didn’t subscribe to full self ID and the wider trans agenda to leave the party. How very “liberal” of them.

The original article is behind a paywall but an amended version can be found on Dale’s website.

My friend asked me why the Lib Dems would pass such a motion. I was able to tell her that, as a member of the Federal Conference Committee, I knew what motions we had on the Conference agenda and that this definitely had not been debated, let alone passed.

I emailed the Telegraph and Mr Dale, pointing out that there had been no such motion – but did not get a reply (though on his website Mr Dale did make a correction).

This seemed a very clear-cut breach of the Independent Press Standards Organisation’s Editors’ Code, Clause 1 of which is concerned with accuracy, and includes this:

i) The Press must take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information or images, including headlines not supported by the text.

I made a complaint and after a couple of emails with IPSO checking on how I knew there had been no debate they said they would refer it to the Telegraph. I was pleased and surprised to receive an email from them the next day which said:

We accept that the article carried an inaccuracy and therefore have amended the online version, which carries the following footnote:
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article stated the Liberal Democrat Spring Conference passed a motion urging anyone in the party who didn’t subscribe to full self ID and the wider trans agenda to leave the party. We have been asked to make clear that there was no motion. We are happy to correct the record.
A correction will also run in print, under our Corrections and Clarifications column, in a forthcoming edition of The Daily Telegraph.
Thank you for taking the time and trouble to highlight the comment piece.

Given how strong feelings are around trans issues, this seems to me an area where the press have a particular responsibility to be accurate – it would have been very easy for the Telegraph to check this story. While it is good to have a correction, the reality is that many more people will have seen the damaging original story than the correction.

However, in this case the IPSO process worked well and quickly – so I would urge anyone who sees an inaccurate piece about the Lib Dems in a publication covered by IPSO to consider a complaint.

* Simon McGrath is a councillor in Wimbledon and a member of the board of Liberal Reform.