Last month, the Sunday Telegraph reported that it had received official information regarding the attendance of the People’s Vote march in London last October. Estimates on how many attended the march had varied, with organisers of the event giving figures of close to 700,000. Critics claimed the figure was much lower.
The Sunday Telegraph article aimed to put the subject to bed. Titled “People’s Vote march was attended by a third of number that organisers claimed, official estimate says”, it stated that the Greater London Authority (GLA) had produced a debrief document for Scotland Yard containing an estimated attendance of 250,000.
The article was reported on by a number of right-wing outlets including the Sunday Express and Breitbart who were quick to denounce the campaign for misleading voters and politicians.
Nothing about the Telegraph article seemed too obviously suspicious. It said that the figure had been obtained following a Freedom of Information request to the Metropolitan Police Service. Scotland Yard was quoted confirming the figure, adding that “this is not a Metropolitan Police Service estimate as we have not recorded an estimated attendance figure for the march.”
But this blog has since received confirmation from the Mayor of London office that no such debrief document exists. According to Ian Lister, Information Governance Manager at the GLA: “No debrief document was produced by the GLA and I can confirm that we do not hold any debrief document.”
Which begs the question – where did the Sunday Telegraph draw its statistic from? Has there been some confusion in the information relayed to the paper by Scotland Yard, or has the paper resorted to simply making up the figures?
The Metropolitan Police Service has been contacted for comment. For a balanced analysis on the People’s Vote march attendance, see this Full Fact report.
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