Scoop

The Guardian noted yesterday that the Times (UK version) had quite the scoop over the weekend.

On Saturday, the Times reported claims that Boris Johnson had tried to hire his now wife as his chief of staff when he was foreign secretary.

But almost as soon as the article hit the printers, it was withdrawn, without explanation or clarification.

The piece, written by the veteran lobby journalist Simon Walters, formerly of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, appeared on page five of some early print copies of Saturday’s Times newspaper but was dropped for later editions.

It does not appear that the article was ever published on the Times’ website.

This, as the Guardian also noted, wasn’t the first time this charge had appeared. Lord Ashcroft had made similar claims in a biography of Carrie Johnson. 

Anyhow:

Journalists at the Times were baffled by the decision to withdraw Saturday’s story, with multiple sources suggesting there had been a high-level intervention to remove it.

Other news outlets picked up on the story only to drop it without explanation.  A fascinating insight into how the UK press actually works, isn’t it?