Planting a story
Allotments
, Issue 1656
The housing secretary had given councils the "green light" to sell off allotments to raise cash and had so far personally approved the sale of eight allotments, said the paper.
Not surprisingly, readers were livid, describing Rayner's plan in the comments as "vile", full of "envy" and demonstrating her government's "hate for this country". What next, one reader asked: will you be labelled "a right-wing extremist for having a window box?"
Hot potato
Fury wasn't limited to the Torygraph. The Guardian followed up with a response from allotment-digger and former leader Jeremy Corbyn, who said: "Is this government going to put the nail in the coffin of the joy of digging ground for potatoes on a cold, wet February Sunday afternoon?"
Meanwhile, change.org reported that three petitions had sprung up to save our allotments in response to the news.
Swap shop
There was only one problem: the story was a classic Telegraph confection.
Green-fingered publication Horticulture Week's follow-up said it all: "No evidence for Angela Rayner allotments sell-off." According to the trade publication, the eight allotments mentioned had either been exchanged for better or bigger plots or were single plots that had fallen out of use.
The National Allotment Society's (NAS) legal adviser Tyler Harris told the publication Rayner had made no statement about councils selling off allotments. Cash-strapped councils might consider selling valuable allotment space to developers, but they would have to go through a statutory process first.
The NAS always objects to allotment sales unless there is mitigation, and the National Planning Casework Unit has accepted NAS objections in every case but one in the past seven years.
The government defended itself with a statement on the story: "Rules on sales of assets have been in place since 2016 and they have not changed, and ministerial approvals were lower in 2024 than the average for previous years."
Buried facts
To put it simply, Rayner has not declared war on allotments. But there's no sign of actual facts getting in the way of the perfect silly season story: more than a fortnight into "Rayner's war on allotments", on Monday the Daily Mail was reporting that the deputy PM "has been branded an 'arch-hypocrite' after she campaigned for allotments in her own constituency but sanctioned their sell-off elsewhere".
Next issue on sale: 3rd September 2025
More top stories in the latest issue:
TELEGRAPHIC MEMORY
Now that a UAE-backed fund has clearance to retain just a 15 percent share of the Telegraph, the paper suddenly seems much, much keener on the Emirates.
POXY VOTE
The NUJ has finally offered Observer hacks a vote of confidence in Guardian editor Kath Viner – months after they'd ceased working for her.
LIES OF THE LAND
The Daily Express is setting new standards for inaccuracy, with the regulator finding eight breaches of its editors' code by the title already this year.
BIT RICH
The Times and Sun have been critical of the government's economic decisions – and their parent company is certainly acting as if businesses are hard up.
SEXY TIMES
The former editor of Glamour wrote in the Times about the importance of sex in women's mags – and readers couldn't wait to point out the Times's own fetish.
BLEAKEST LINK
With Mirror hacks ordered to add irrelevant "inline links" to their stories, the bizarre results are helping to erode the last vestiges of credibility at the title.
ATTENTION SEEKERS
The Daily Mail's resident medic believes ADHD is "being wildly overdiagnosed" – so who might be driving this pandemic of overdiagnosis?
