Prime minister called the claim ‘fake news’ - but leaked email to Foreign Office staff confirmed it.

As a correspondent, the likely future PM produced exaggerated tales that were lapped up at home.

This is an edited version of the Julian Priestley Memorial Lecture delivered by the author on 7 May 2021.

Multiple Instagram, Facebook and Twitter posts have shared an aerial photo which they claim shows a protest against coronavirus lockdowns in the UK capital of London in April 2021. The claim is false: the photo shows a march in October 2018 that called for a fresh referendum on Brexit.

‘There are lessons that we can learn from Trump….a lie can go round the world before the truth can get its boots on’.

Ursula von der Leyen hits out at Britain over plans to breach agreement on Northern Ireland.

'As striking was his ridiculous vanity: Cummings cared so neurotically about his reputation as a prophet that he forged the record so it appeared that he was warning of the ‘‘urgent need’’ to plan for a coronavirus pandemic while the minds of lesser men and women were elsewhere.'

'Would we have won without immigration? No. Would we have won without...the NHS? All our research and the close result strongly suggests no. Would we have won by spending our time talking about trade and the single market? No way'

On a recent afternoon in Helsinki, a group of students gathered to hear a lecture on a subject that is far from a staple in most community college curriculums.

The Conservatives have been accused of releasing a misleading campaign video after doctoring footage to falsely suggest that a senior Labour figure had been unable to answer a question about Brexit.

European Commission president says ‘bulls***’ was responsible for Brexit.

Conservative chiefs sparked a fake news row today by claiming that Boris Johnson’s landmark Brexit deal had already “passed” Parliament.

George Osborne also waded into the row after his newspaper, the Evening Standard, ran a story accusing the Tories of misleading the public.

Are political journalists being conned by Number 10 and spreading lies? / The veteran journalist Peter Oborne has accused some of the UK’s biggest news outlets of effectively becoming clients of Boris Johnson’s government and of spreading fake news.

It’s chilling. From the Mail, The Times to the BBC and ITN, everyone is peddling Downing Street’s lies and smears. They’re turning their readers into dupes.

"European Parliament votes to create 'BERLIN TIME' that UK could be forced to adopt". That was the colourful claim from British tabloid the Daily Express on March 26. The article claims that MEPs have voted to "advance plans to shift to Berlin time in 2021". Although some elements of the article are correct, no specific time zone is being imposed in the EU.

Civil servants in the Cabinet Office will run a new unit to tackle 'misleading' stories about no deal Brexit.

The watchful volunteers have recruited an international force of thousands to help stem disinformation, writes Kim Sengupta.

Avaaz uncovers 500 accounts using fake news to spread white supremacy message. / A web of far-right Facebook accounts spreading fake news and hate speech to millions of people across Europe has been uncovered by the campaign group Avaaz.

MPs warn Cummings' behaviour highlights weaknesses in parliament’s ability to force witnesses to attend hearings - and to punish those who stay away.

Tom Prides on whether the petition to revoke article 50 has really been hacked by some Russian bots and non-Brit fraudsters, as Nigel Farage and other Brexiters have repeatedly claimed.

Research has identified how political extremists outside of the UK have been amplifying online pro-Leave views on Brexit.

French President Emmanuel Macron has outlined his vision for Europe's future, urging reform of its passport-free Schengen area and setting up a new agency to protect against fake news.