SUPPORT OUR JOURNALISM: Please consider donating to keep our website running and free for all - thank you!

Queen Elizabeth II

‘Queen backs Brexit’ headline ruled misleading

A press watchdog has decided that The Sun‘s headline “Queen backs Brexit” to be misleading on Wednesday.

Buckingham Palace made a complaint to the press regulator IPSO over The Sun‘s report which claimed an unnamed source said there were at least two times in the past ten years in which Queen Elizabeth spoke her mind about her opposition to a British membership of the European Union.

In just over a month, on June 23, Britain will take to the polls to vote whether to stay in the EU. The fact that The Queen reportedly wished to leave could change the decisions of Britons.

The IPSO published their ruling on their website “The headline was not supported by the text and was significantly misleading,

“The headline contained a serious and unsupported allegation that the queen had fundamentally breached her constitutional obligations in the context of a vitally important national debate.”

As a constitutional monarch, Queen Elizabeth must not take political sides and keep her personal views private.

The Sun, who did not agree with the IPSO ruling, published the headline “IPSO rules against Sun’s Queen headline” on the bottom of its front page. An article followed on page two with further details on the ruling and Buckingham Palace’s argument.

Part of the article read: “Does the Queen back Brexit? We’re sure she does,

“Having devoted her life to Britain, we believe (her opinions) are particularly strong about the erosion of our sovereignty by the EU.

“A newspaper wouldn’t be a newspaper if it got wind of such views, so clearly in the public’s interest to read, and didn’t publish them.”

Buckingham Palace’s defence was that the headline gave readers the view that Her Majesty wished Britain to leave, describing it as a “misleading and distorted” view.

The Sun further went into defence saying that it was nonsense to think The Queen never spoke her mind, using her remarks about the recent Chinese State Visit in which she described the officials as “very rude” during a conversation at a garden party.

1 Comment

Comments are closed.