Laura
Kuenssberg says source told her the Queen backed Brexit
BBC
political editor reignites row over whether monarch spoke in favour
of leaving EU prior to referendum
Rowena
Mason Deputy political editor
Monday
26 December 2016 12.00 GMT
The BBC’s
political editor, Laura Kuenssberg, has reignited the row over
whether the Queen was in favour of Brexit, saying a source told her
before the referendum that the monarch made comments supportive of
leaving the EU.
Nine months after
the Sun sparked controversy by publishing a headline, “Queen backs
Brexit”, in March, Kuenssberg recalled what a contact had told her.
The front page
caused one of the biggest rows of the EU referendum campaign and
prompted a successful complaint to the press regulator, Ipso, by
Buckingham Palace, which said it was misleading.
Speaking to BBC
Radio 4’s Today programme, Kuenssberg revealed she had been told
something similar but decided not to report it because it came from a
single source. The BBC generally requires a story to be
double-sourced before it can run.
The stories you need
to read, in one handy email
Read more
“In a casual chat
with one of my contacts, they said, ‘Do you know what? At some
point this is going to come out, and I’m telling you now and I
don’t know if the BBC would touch it, but the Queen told people at
a private lunch that she thinks that we should leave the EU,’”
she said.
“Apparently at
this lunch she said: ‘I don’t see why we can’t just get out.
What’s the problem?’
“My jaw hit the
floor. Very sadly, I only had one source. I spent the next few days
trying to prove it. I couldn’t find the evidence. Lo and behold, a
couple of months later, someone else did. Of course then ensued a
huge row between that newspaper and the palace over what had really
been said or not said.
“There were lots
of moments in the referendum campaign, but for me that was one when
my jaw did hit the floor. Very frustratingly, the story did
eventually emerge, whether it was true or not.”
The Sun stood by its
story, saying it had two sources for the claim that the Queen had
“let rip” at the then deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, about
Europe at a lunch at Windsor Castle.
Clegg said he could
not recall the conversation and dismissed the Sun’s account as
“nonsense”. He went on to point the finger at Michael Gove, the
former justice secretary and leave campaigner, who had also been
present.
Gove has never
confirmed being the original source for the story, saying: “Well,
as I’ve said before I don’t know how the Sun got all its
information, and I don’t think it’s really worth my adding
anything to what’s already been said about this story.”
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário