In February this year, the Daily Mail made a big claim: more than 700 EU migrants were being found guilty of crime every week – up by 40% in just five years.

Today, it finally admitted the figure was wrong.

A ‘clarification’ it published this morning read:

In fact, as the article went on to explain, the figures related to ‘notifications’ which include breaches of court orders and appeals as well as convictions.

The 700 number referred to ‘notifications’ — the UK letting another country know that one of its citizens has either been convicted of an offence in the UK, or had their conviction updated.

That

In other words, the figures don’t show how many EU migrants have been convicted of crimes. They don’t show how many convictions involving EU migrants have taken place. And they don’t show how many crimes have been committed by EU migrants.

The same claim was made by the Telegraph and the Daily Express – neither have corrected their story.

The Daily Mail has merely changed ‘convictions’ to ‘notifications’ on its story online, without much of an explanation.

And yet Brexiteers have the cheek to call for a debate with the facts