Complaint
Two readers of this analysis of the European Election results complained that a bar chart headed 鈥淗ow pro-聽 and anti-Brexit parties have done鈥 was misleading.
Outcome
The 鈥淧谤辞-叠谤别虫颈迟鈥 bar, accounting for 34.9% of the vote, represented the combined vote for the Brexit Party and Ukip, while the 鈥淎苍迟颈-叠谤别虫颈迟鈥 bar, at 40.4%, represented the combined vote for the Liberal Democrats, the Greens, the SNP, Plaid Cymru and Change UK, with the Conservative and Labour votes shown separately.聽 In the ECU鈥檚 judgement, the heading鈥檚 reference to 鈥減ro- and anti-Brexit parties鈥 was somewhat misleading in a context where parties identified as 鈥减谤辞鈥 were those in favour of a no-deal Brexit and varying proportions of the Conservative and Labour votes would have come from supporters of other forms of Brexit, and not enough context was given to guard against the inference that those in favour of Brexit had been outvoted by those opposed to it.
Upheld
Further action
The graphic has been removed. Teams have been reminded of the need to ensure that the wider context is reflected when reporting election data.