The Daily Telegraph is set to be rebuked by the press regulator for a “misleading” front-page news story that claimed Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon secretly supported the election of David Cameron as prime minister.

A preliminary finding by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) is understood to have concluded that the pre-election story headlined “Sturgeon’s secret backing for Cameron” breached the first clause of the editors’ code of practice, which insists that publications “must take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information”.

The Ipso investigation follows a complaint from the SNP, and both parties have 14 days to comment on the draft adjudication. If upheld, the regulator is likely to insist on a correction with “due prominence” under its own guidelines which in this case is most likely to mean a page two correction with a mention on page one.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Daily Telegraph front page on 4 April 2015. Photograph: Clipshare

The disputed story was politically explosive and immediately after its publication in early April, was denied by Sturgeon. At the time she said: “Your story is categorically, 100%, untrue … which I’d have told you if you’d asked me at any point today”.

It is the first time since the creation of Ipso last September that the regulator has threatened to criticise a national newspaper over a front-page story, making the episode the strongest test yet of the power of the press regulator, which was set up in the wake of the Leveson inquiry into press standards.

A spokesman for the first minister: said: “We lodged a complaint with Ipso on the basis that we believed the Telegraph’s conduct in producing this story fell far short of the expected journalistic standards.

“Subsequent events have proven conclusively that the story was entirely untrue, and we now look forward to Ipso publishing their adjudication on the case.”

In the disputed article based on a leaked memo from the Scottish Office, the Telegraph’s political editor Peter Dominiczak and Scottish political editor Simon Johnson reported that Sturgeon would “rather see” David Cameron win the general election, while she believed Ed Miliband was not “prime minister material”.



The Telegraph subsequently published the leaked memo in full. It was written by an unnamed civil servant after a conversation with the French consul general in Edinburgh about a meeting that had taken place between Sturgeon and the French ambassador.

That memo included misgivings on the part of the author. The memo ends with an account of the ambassador’s “truncated meeting with the FM [First Minister] … Discussion appears to have focused mainly on the political situation, with the FM stating that she wouldn’t want a formal coalition with Labour … and confessed that she’d rather see David Cameron remain as PM (and didn’t see Ed Miliband as PM material). I have to admit that I’m not sure that the FM’s tongue would be quite so loose on that kind of thing in a meeting like that, so it might well be a case of something being lost in translation.”

The subsequent Telegraph report mentioned that the surprised civil servant “questioned whether there might have been an issue with the ‘translation’ during the conversation.” Before adding: “However, it was later established that the conversation took place in English, which all the French officials speak fluently.”

The Telegraph reporters involved also did not approach Sturgeon or the SNP for comment.



In a draft adjudication sent to the SNP and the newspaper, Ipso is also understood to be critical of the failure to call the SNP.

The Telegraph, SNP and Ipso all declined to comment on any adjudication before publication.



In a statement the regulator said: “Ipso does not comment on any complaint while it is being examined and certainly not prior to any ruling being published on our website. It would not be fair or reasonable to either the complainant or the publication concerned and we will not do so on this case.”



Shortly after the report’s publication, the consul general Pierre-Alain Coffinier denied the story, telling the Guardian: “I have looked at my notes and absolutely no preference has been expressed by anyone regarding the outcome of the election. Which suggests neither Nicola nor my ambassador said anything.”

Subsequently, Alistair Carmichael, the Liberal Democrat former Scottish secretary, admitted that he was behind the leak of the memo to the Telegraph. The MP apologised to Sturgeon and the French ambassador after “accepting full responsibility” for the leak, while Sir Jeremy Heywood, the cabinet secretary, defended the civil servant who wrote the memo.

Bad feeling and political differences between the Daily Telegraph and the SNP previously came to a head during last year’s Scottish independence referendum debate. The title’s Scottish editor Alan Cochrane denied he had been promised a £20,000 bonus if Scotland voted against independence following allegations made in Private Eye.

Other Ipso judgements against national newspapers include finding against the Sun’s Rod Liddle over his column about a transgender politician.