The Daily Mail – one of Britain’s best read newspapers and one of the most highly ranked news websites in the world – has been forced to apologise and pay damages to the wife of UKIP leader Nigel Farage after claiming that the pair began an affair before Farage’s first marriage ended.
The Mail issued the correction in print and online today, stating:
“An article about Nigel Farage on 14 March and 22 April said he and his wife Kirsten began an affair before the UKIP leader’s first marriage ended. We are happy to clarify that they met only after the divorce was finalised and apologise for any distress caused. We have agreed to pay damages and costs to Kirsten Farage.”
The claim, which implied infidelity on the parts of both Nigel and Kirsten Farage, is said to have cost the Mail a substantial sum in damages. UKIP is chasing a handful of other complaints lodged with national newspapers after a raft of stories on the run-up to the European elections.
A legal expert told Breitbart London that claims surrounding infidelity could “easily stretch into the tens of thousands of pounds” and it would be “unsurprising if the Mail had to pay out a similar amount.”
“It will have been a fat cheque,” he said.
Last week UKIP candidate Winston McKenzie highlighted the media’s anti-UKIP bias in a speech to activists at the Emmanuel Centre in London.
“Let’s look at the situation with the media,” he said to boos from the audience. “Why is it that it’s only at election time that we’re going to get this nonsense?”
Meanwhile, Breitbart London has learned of numerous other complaints being made about coverage in the Mirror, the Metro and the Huffington Post, after one UKIP candidate was labelled a “laughing stock” for highlighting UKIP’s place on the European election ballot papers (at the bottom).
The Mirror, Metro, and Huffington Post all made assumptions about the tweet, exclaiming that the candidate didn’t understand the alphabet, though Breitbart London understands that the tweet was simply aimed at assisting voters in finding UKIP at the bottom – rather than raising conspiratorial questions about its position.