Daily Mail hoodwinked by spoof blog about UKIP flag being flown above Ely Cathedral

A spoof blog printed this photo of the UKIP flag being flown overr Ely Cathedral. It was of course Ely Pride flying the flag. Unfortunately the Daily Mail didn't check and published the former Archant

Fleet Street journalist Andrew Pierce was today the feeling the pangs of embarrassment after being hoodwinked by a satirical blog that falsely stated the UKIP flag was flown over Ely Cathedral.

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He lifted reference to the UKIP flag from a blog read by a few hundred to catapult it before millions of on line readers of the Daily Mail.

“Is UKIP now holy acceptable?” Pierce wrote. “Is Brexit now an official religion? “Fluttering above historic Ely Cathedral was the distinctive purple and gold flag of UKIP. The flag was put up to mark a UKIP conference held nearby.”

His fake news report was attacked by Cambridgeshire Labour MEP Alex Mayer who said: “Is the Daily Mail so desperate for positive UKIP stories, they are now having to publish fake news?”

She said the story was published by the Mail alongside a true news report about how internet domains ending in dot EU will be terminated in Britain when we leave the European Union.

She said: ““In fact Ely Cathedral was flying the Pride flag, just as you would expect from a tolerant and inclusive city.”

The spoof story first appeared on the Archbishop Cranmer website.

Ely Cathedral has since tweeted “The Archbishop Cranmer blog is a parody and the UKIP flag has not flown over Ely Cathedral.”

Pierce even quoted Peter Broadbent, Bishop of Willesden, who allegedly “spluttered with outrage at the decision, talking darkly of ‘blasphemy’ in the cloisters. “But if church leaders had the passion of Brexiteers like Nigel Farage, there wouldn’t be such a crisis of attendance in the pews.”