The local Labour group has complained to the press watchdog over a Daily Mail article published on Saturday saying it is riddled with inaccuracies.
The article criticsed “woke councillors” for spending money on “pet projects” such as a weedkiller ban and low traffic neighbourhood (LTN) while homelessness, litter, rubbish, drug-dealing and graffiti are rife.
It also critised the use of pictures from 2021 without making it clear they are out of date.
This week, Labour announced it had made an official complaint to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso), which it said was now investigating.
Deputy Leader of Brighton & Hove City Council Jacob Taylor said “The Daily Mail put out a disgraceful article over the weekend, which was full of inaccuracies and outright lies.
“The article pretended to be reporting on the current state of the city, but used photos from three years ago.
“They also claimed that the Labour council were forced to u-turn on closing public toilets last year, when the exact opposite is true – we forced the Green council to abandon this policy, and we stood on a platform to reopen toilets, which is precisely what we’re now doing.”
Several public toilets were closed in the winter of 2022. A council report published in January 2023 said this was the result of a combination of factors, including successive budget cuts since 2015 and a resulting lack of maintenance, inflation and an increase in staffing costs following the cleaning service being brought in-house in February 2022, a decision made by officers.
The report said a further proposed cut of £300,000 – noted by both Green and Labour members of the finance committee the previous month – would result in some toilets being permanently closed unless charging was brought in. Within days, the then-Green administration reversed that cut following an outcry.
The complaint also refers to a claim that money was wasted on an LTN. The article does make it clear lower down that the scheme was shelved, one of what it says were a number of “embarassing u-turns” on policies Labour supported when the Greens were in power.
Labour councillors had voted with the Greens for the draft plans to be progressed in earlier stages but later called for it to be scrapped, and were joined by the Tories to vote down the plan weeks before last May’s election.
It also complains that the piece says “residents have been left in poverty by the cuts and and increase in tax”, describing it as “an absolutely wild statement” because the cuts and tax rises haven’t yet come into effect, and are unlikely to cause a material increase in poverty.
The Daily Mail did not respond to a request for comment. Brighton and Hove News understands that while some of the pictures of rubbish used in the piece were from 2021, most were taken within the last few days or months.
I’ve no time for the Blairites running our city but they are right to challenge the lies of the vile Daily Mail on this occasion
Ahem. Not Blairites, but Momentum. Blairites knew the value of commerce.
Reminds me of lockdowns, the national newspapers were showing old pictures of crowded beach’s when the true fact was they were nearly empty. There is a problem with open drug dealing and taking as the Police now turn a blind eye then take it out on well run establishments if a swab is positive. But the nighttime economy can’t keep drugs fully out if the police are failing to stop the open supply.
Weeds are still a problem left by the greens which hopefully will get solved now weed killer can be used on pavements.
I think the area between the pier and the marina in the main tourist area gives a bad impression as litter is not collected in the fenced off areas and the area just left to rot the same way the West pier went.
No Robert, you are getting basic facts incorrect. The beaches were packed, and it was embarrassing to see that many people spread a deadly disease on as professional level.
The evidence from the Government’s top scientists to the Covid enquiry is that it was safer to be outside, on beaches for instance, than cooped up indoors. There was more ventilation, even on a crowded beach or in the countryside, than in any building with the windows open. It was crazy to keep otherwise healthy people inside with those who were ill, most notably in care homes, thus spreading the disease faster. It was also ridiculous to keep children at home when they really should have been at school. The dreadful damage to their mental health will play out for years and years to come. One of my parents died during the panic-demic, not from Covid, but because it was impossible to get the doctor out. Too many Governments panicked and completely ignored the WHO guide to pandemics.
Incorrect, we had major spikes following heatwaves that saw thousand of people attend the beach almost exactly in line with the current strain’s incubation period.
The evidence base was rapidly evolving, so you can’t take a single snapshot and use it to confirmation bias.
Children, was less clear. They weren’t getting ill themselves, but as vectors this was less clear. It certainly was not however, “ridiculous”.
At one point, we were anticipating a 60% death rate in most medical facilities, so the utilitarianism approach was to act defensively with our medical personal, because we didn’t have enough as it was, students were being temporary promoted to help bulk the numbers.
And lastly, sorry for your loss. COVID was a time we saw a lot of death; not just to the disease, but from other conditions as well. Saw a lot of suicides – people thought there was no way out.
Benjamin, I’m not sure what your medical credentials are on the professional level that you allude to, but you plainly haven’t listened to the clear and repeated evidence presented to the Hallett Inquiry. You do appear, though, to have been thoroughly taken in by Matt Hancock, whose veracity has been, shall we say, called into question. Here’s just one report of one evidence session reported by The Guardian, which, lest we forget, was a strong advocate of lockdown measures, and wanted schools closed too, for the reasons you suggest.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/19/how-the-beach-super-spreader-myth-can-inform-uks-future-covid-response
The Guardian accurately describes the hysteria which was cooked up by the likes of Dominic Cummings and Matt Hancock to panic people into compliance with nonsensical restrictions.
The Government drove a coach and horses through the existing WHO pandemic guidance to quarantine the sick, not force the healthy stay indoors in close quarters to them so that they too become infected. If you really are a clinician, Benjamin, I fear for your patients.
No fan of Hancock. Did enjoy watching him get punched in the face on SAS though. The Hallet Inquiry Report hasn’t been released yet. I’m aware Woolhouse’s comments of being outdoors being a poor vector, with the caveat he also mentions of proximity and intimate activities, such as a crowded beach. It’s a reduced risk, but not a panacea. But I’m looking forward to reading the full report, although it’s expected to come out 2026, with the interim this year.
My colleagues didn’t need the paper to tell us it was bad. We were seeing it firsthand daily. And, in line with your reasoning, most of us clinicians did segregate ourselves to avoid being a vector to our families. Two metres from an infected person for 15 minutes was enough exposure to be infected. Didn’t see my family in person for three years; that was a very long time. And not everyone I worked with made it through those years either, rest their souls.
It was a very sloppy piece of journalism from a Tory-run paper determined to take side swipes at any Labour council.
We’ll see plenty more of this sort of fake news in the run up to the general election.
In this case they’d have appealed more to their dog whistle audience had the article not contained so many obvious twisted truths and blunders.
The irony is that, after over a decade of austerity, all councils – regardless of political colour – are suffering the same budget cuts, and facing the same customer dissatisfactions about service delivery.
There’s a reason it’s called the Daily Fail.
IPSO will do nothing unless you have first complained to the paper, and they have refused to print a retraction/correction. IPSO editors code Clause I part iii. But who am I to tell a Councillor about due process ?
Pretty standard procedure for any ombudsman or the like.
Surprised anyone in Labour even saw the artcile…. do they read to Daily Mail?
empty the bins you turds
Jesus, you’re one-track minded. You know the far kid in Shrek, that just says “Do the roar” throughout the movie?
sorry i don’t watch childrens cartoons
You’re missing out.
There may have been some inaccuracies but a lot of what was said was true. The parks look dreadful except in the cases were residents have been forced to look after them themselves. Go to Bournemouth they manage to have nice outdoor spaces. There is graffiti everywhere and there should be a policy of immediate removal whether this gets charged to the building owner or from council tax. This is even visible on council managed property such as communal bins. Other cities manage it. The town is over-run with rough sleepers. In cities like London they deliberately do not house these people in high densities in close geographical areas as it creates a market for dealers and they cause trouble with people begging and harrassing tourists and shoppers for their next fix. This situation has got so bad that some residents in areas like St James street are now too frightened to go out at night. Brighton Council has a policy of sticking housing for these people in close geographical proximity to each other right next to tourism and shopping areas. This means the problem now feels worst than in any other city I have ever been to including in places with much more deprivation like Liverpool. 20% of jobs in Brighton are connected in some way to tourism and these issues also affect normal residents. The council needs to stop complaining and get a grip as although some of the photos and nuances in this article may be incorrect the tone of the article is something sadly most Brighton residents can recognise. As for taxes we are paying amongst the highest council tax and parking permit prices in the country. They have £100,000 to spend on diversity training courses they should be able to find the money to run basic services correctly.
Well said!!
Nope, disagree. The article attempts to invoke an emotional response and be sensationalist in it’s writing, skipping accuracy for inflammatory comments.
Even those aspects that have some element to truth to them are disingenuously taken out of context, blown out of proportion, or with little explanation.
Comparing London to anywhere is pointless, because it has a whole different set of rules and finances attached to it. And arguments conveniently forget the cause for things like homelessness is down to the worse, in history, financial management by the Tories.
So yeah, it’s shitty writing, worthy of it’s nickname, Daily Fail.
In case people get the wrong impression can I correct an inaccuracy in your article. The Daily Mail doesn’t qualify as a newspaper. It would be more accurate to describe it as a comic that would literally not even recognise the truth if it tripped over it. To say that it understands the difference between factual reporting and biased comment would be stretching credulity to limits no rational being would contemplate as possible. I’m surprised the Labour Party is wasting time and effort in complaining, as the Press watchdog or whatever will most probably just label the article as normal comment from such a periodical and then pass on to the next complaint.
My personal favourite from the Daily Fail is the list of things it thinks causes cancer. Such as being a man, being a woman and drinking water as personal favourites.
On the upside it does bring the failure of the greens back into focus and reminds labour that the clock is ticking for them to improve infrastructure and basic services.
What about the 90 percent of the story which was completely accurate about what a money-wasting, virtue signalling pot-hole ridden dump Brighton and Hove has become with an out of control rubbish collection department which gives itself the power to hold our city to ransom?
Plus Labour had its not-so-secret Memorandum of Understanding with the Greens and they ruled together behind the scenes when the Greens were supposedly running the city alone.
If you see a 90% accurate sentence in there, let the rest of us know. It’s disingenuous sensationalism at best catering for low intelligence readers who don’t question things and go in half cocked without all the facts.
…Barry.
Benjy Boy!
Calm down – you’re not being your normal bland self!
You’re being out-trolled
If the article is so inaccurate, tell us about the paradise city we are living in, thanks to our wonderful council, Benjy boy. We’re not interested in the Punch and Judy behind the scenes, just the results for residents.
It’s not black or white either Barry. This is what we mean. Ignorance is bliss, is still ignorance.
rather wet Labour Group complaint to IPSO : it rose to the bait too easily and was just gas-lighting par excellence . Talking up, down or round the weed-free garden path does nothing to help the residents.
Labour complaining about inaccuracies? Ha! They won a whole election campaign on the back of distorted truths and accuracies, not to mention false promises and fake candidates. The pictures in the Mail may be old, but they are little different from how things are now, or how they were before Labour collapsed in 2020 and had to ask the Greens to take over. The article gives Labour a taste of their own medicine, and they don’t like it one bit.
Haha – Labour having the gall to complain on bins after they promised they’d sort them in their manifestos in 2015, 2019, and again last May. They’ve not managed to sort the bins yet (obviously nothing to to do with their close ties to GMB and donations they’ve received from them!), and now are claiming poor us because a national newspaper has criticised them because they may, or may not, have used an out of date picture. It’s not April 1st yet is it?
I’d not worry about it. The Daily Mail isn’t a newspaper, its a comic for utter bellends.