The Daily Express Invents False Quote For Brexit Fake News

In some ways the Daily Express is the also-ran of right-wing newspapers in the United Kingdom. Considerably smaller and with far less influence than the ideological standard bearers of the Daily Mail and the Sun, it nevertheless ploughs its own furrow, catering to a far older and possibly more reactionary demographic among British readers. Consequently it has adopted an avowedly xenophobic line on the UK’s relations with the European Union, publishing a litany of articles and opinion pieces down through the years that would not look out of place in Viktor Orbán’s new Hungary.

Unsurprisingly, this has led to innumerable false claims being made by the Daily Express as part of its contribution to the anti-EU Brexit campaign in Britain. The newspaper has rivalled its bigger competitor, the Daily Mail, in the publication of known falsehoods or deliberately misleading stories. While this is now considered the norm in the febrile British media, there are still some allegations that come as surprise given the sheer audacity of the lie.

Take this deliberately scaremongering headline in the newspaper:

‘Terrorism would TEAR down physical Brexit border!’ Former Irish leader WARNS Theresa May

THERESA May would not dare place a physical border in Ireland because “terrorism” would tear it down immediately, a former Taoiseach declared during a BBC Newsnight interview.

Now read the actual words from the former Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, to a BBC news programme, none of which match the quote above:

”There never will be a border. There is not going to be a physical border across Ireland because if you tried to put it there you wouldn’t have to wait for terrorism to take it down, people would just physically pull it down – the ordinary people.”

So the ex-Fianna Fáil leader never said that “Terrorism would tear down physical Brexit border“, an invented quote which completely misrepresents what he actually did say. Unfortunately this piece, and thousands like it, are entirely typical of the mainstream British press since the Brexit referendum of 2016. And arguably, well before it.