JOURNALISTIC STANDARDS AND THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

That this House notes that, after the Prime Minister stated in this House on 6th November that the Government was planning to reform inheritance tax before this year's Conservative Party conference and that documents requested under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 would confirm his statement, the Daily Telegraph requested the relevant Treasury papers under Labour's Freedom of Information Act; notes that these papers corroborated what the Prime Minister had said; further notes that the Daily Telegraph published the outcome of its inquiries in a three-inch story at the bottom of the seventh column on page two in its issue of 9th November; wonders what prominence the Daily Telegraph would have given this story if the Prime Minister's statement had not been borne out; and wonders, further, how this salutary episode conforms with the high journalistic standards established for the Daily Telegraph by William Deedes and other distinguished editors.