Shadow home secretary said stories based on an undercover investigation misleadingly stated he had been caught up in a ‘cash for access’ scandal

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Shadow home secretary Andy Burnham’s complaint about a series of Sun articles based on an undercover investigation has been rejected by the press watchdog.



Burnham complained that the stories, published last year, headlined “Bung me £5k to meet Burnham”, “Publicly: ‘Corbyn’s a nice man’ privately: ‘he will be a disaster’” and “Exposed: Burnham fixer dismissed as ‘fantasist’ cheers on Jeremy Corbyn at conference”, were misleading and amounted to a “fishing expedition” without any public interest.

Two of the articles were based on a sting by an undercover reporter posing as a wealthy donor, relating to the chairman of the Muslim Friends of Labour, Faiz Ul Rasool.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sun front page story on Andy Burnham. Photograph: The Sun

The Sun said Rasool had offered to arrange a meeting with Burnham in exchange for a donation and that after the reporter had given Rasool £5,000 he introduced the reporter to the MP at a campaign event.

Burnham complained to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) that the articles gave the misleading impression that he had acted illegally or improperly and had inaccurately stated that he had been caught up in a “cash for access” scandal.

At no stage, said Burnham, had he offered access in exchange for donations, nor had he accepted donations on that basis.

The Sun did not accept a breach of the code, saying it was a “significant public interest investigation” into Rasool and claims about the abuse of party funding. It did not accept it was a fishing expedition and said there were “solid grounds” for suspecting a well connected figure was prepared to circumvent rules on party funding.

Ipso, in its ruling published on Thursday, said it had sympathy with Burnham’s position but did not uphold his complaint.

“The coverage did not allege impropriety by the complainant,” it said. “Instead, it reported that he had become ‘caught up’ in a cash for access row as a consequence of the actions of Mr Rasool.

“While the committee sympathised with the complainant’s position that he had been innocently drawn into the scandal, this was accurate: Mr Rasool had accepted £5,000 from an individual, purportedly a non-UK national, in exchange for organising a meeting with the complainant.

“The newspaper was careful to state only that he had become ‘caught up’ in the ‘row.’”

Burnham had complained to Ipso that the Sun breached the editors’ code on “accuracy”, “opportunity to reply”, “privacy” and use of “clandestine devices and subterfuge”.

On Burnham’s comments about Jeremy Corbyn, now Labour leader, Ipso said there was a “public interest in transparency in relation to the views of those holding, and further seeking, public office”.



It also upheld the Sun’s use of undercover tactics.