The editor of London’s Evening Standard has issued a “heartfelt apology” after details of yesterday’s Budget were revealed on Twitter before the Chancellor got up to speak.
A picture of the Standard’s front page, featuring details of planned changes in income tax thresholds, beer duty and fuel duty among other measures, appeared on the paper’s Twitter account shortly after midday.
A journalist at the paper has since been suspended over the leak which occurred around 20 minutes before George Osborne began his Commons statement.
The London daily may now face exclusion from the system of pre-Budget briefings designed to give evening papers and broadcasters advance details of the Chancellor’s plans under strict embargo.
Standard editor Sarah Sands said in a statement: “An investigation is immediately underway into how this front page was made public and the individual who Tweeted the page has been suspended while this takes place.
“We have immediately reviewed our procedures. We are devastated that an embargo was breached and offer our heartfelt apologies.”
Political editor Joe Murphy, who wrote the front page story, also tweeted: “I wish to apologise for a very serious mistake by the @EveningStandard earlier which resulted in our front page being tweeted.
“We are so sorry to the House of Commons, to the Speaker and to the Chancellor for what happened. We shall be apologosing to them.”
Mr Osborne has now ordered Sir Nick Macpherson, the Treasury permanent secretary, to conduct a review of the pre-budget briefings.
The Treasury said in a statement: “The chancellor has asked the permanent secretary to conduct a review into the practice of the proactive pre-releasing of budget information under embargo on budget day which has operated in recent years. He has asked that this review report on the appropriateness of these arrangements.”
Labour MPs were waving copies of the front page around on the Commons benches at the start of Mr Osborne’s speech.
In 1947, the Labour Chancellor Hugh Dalton was forced to resign after giving another London evening newspaper details of the Budget while he was on his way to the House to deliver it.
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This would have been a Tower job if press regulation had started.
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And just what was the point of the tweet anyway? It didn’t sell any copies of a paper, it didn’t promote the Standard in any particularly effective way, it didn’t gain any advertising – and it was probably read by few people outside of politicians and political reporters.
Why don’t newspapers simply concentrate on their core business – producing great papers which the public want to buy and, therefore, advertisers will want to buy space in.
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Have you got nothing better to do than troll on HTFP’s comments Observer50. Surely if you are going to go to the trouble of writing parody there are better places than here…
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Well done! Whoever it was should be promoted to editor immediately. This is what social media is all about. Congrats.
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What an absolutely ludicrous situation.
If you actually stop and think about what’s going on here, intro to this story should read:
A journalist has been suspended from a newspaper for disobeying government press officers.
The journalist’s editor was forced to apologise after one of her team became the first journalist in Britain to break a story of national significance.
She said she had launched an immediate investigation into the journalist’s conduct.
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Surely the desk, or a sub, or the editor herself, could and should have said ‘hang on a mo, there’s an embargo on this’ and then asked for the page not to be tweeted?
It looks as if someone is being made a scapegoat for this.
Either that, or they should tell the Treasury where to stick it.
CEThom – I agree with what you say. I know of couple of local paper reporters who have got into trouble for standing up to press officers from important organisations after they wrote stories criticising said organisations. Alas, the bosses were more interested in their potential advertising than in telling their readers the truth.
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Hang on, hang on… it’s not about disobeying press officers. It’s about respecting an embargo.
Why is an embargoed copy given out? So journalists have more time to work on their reports, rather than sit in front of a TV or radio and taking down the details.
If the present embargo system ends, who are the losers? Us, the journalists, who will have less time to do our job.
Sure, some embargoes are plain daft. Why does a PR firm put a midnight embargo on a lousy local press release that is no interest to anyone?: But this one is rather different.
Personally, if I need some information before it is made public to ensure I can do the best job possible in-paper and online, I’m happy to respect an embargo. My department is small enough already. I welcome anything that makes my job a little easier.
And if I break that embargo, I lose face, I lose trust… and deserve for my next request for advance copy to fall on deaf ears.
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gotta agree with Not So with this one
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In fairness this was a pretty serious breach that could have had widespread effects in the money markets. You have to be careful with what you put out on social media, just as you would in old fashioned copy.
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Widespread effects in money markets?
The exact same budget was announced 20 minutes later.
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