Rachel Reeves accused of plagiarising Wikipedia in new book as shadow chancellor apologises for ‘inadvertent mistakes’
RED-faced Rachel Reeves was today forced to admit that her brand new book contains passages “mistakenly” copied and pasted from Wikipedia.
Just one morning after a swanky booze-filled Westminster event to launch ‘The Women Who Made Modern Economics’, the Shadow Chancellor was plunged into an embarrassing plagiarism row.
Analysis by the Financial Times found at least 20 examples of copy and pasting from a cocktail of Wikipedia, articles in The Guardian and other unacknowledged sources.
A spokesperson for Ms Reeves said: “We strongly refute the accusation that has been put to us by this newspaper.
“These were inadvertent mistakes and will be rectified in future reprints.”
Her publisher, Basic Books, admitted: “When factual sentences were taken from primary sources, they should have been rewritten and properly referenced.
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“We acknowledge this did not happen in every case.”
The Shadow Chancellor’s new book chronicles the lives of women across history who have influenced economics.
Labour’s top brass gathered at the Institute for Government last night to celebrate the non-fiction piece.
Alongside journalists, lobbyists and advisors they sipped on white and red wine and beer, and dined on samosas and olives.
But this morning hype around the book was less rosy.
In one apparent instance of plagiarism, a sentence about the economist Beatrice Webb is identical to that featured on Ms Webbs’ Wikipedia page: “He responded by lampooning the couple in his 1911 novel The New Machiavelli as Altiora and Oscar Bailey, a pair of short-sighted, bourgeois manipulators.”
In another shocking example, a section of the foreword to a report published by the Tony Blair Institute appears with no changes in Ms Reeves’ book.
The report wrote: “When we were elected in 1997, the amount of aid we gave as a proportion of our national income had halved over the preceding 18 years and was just 0.26%.
“By the time we left office, we were on our way to achieving the 0.7% target.
“This was down to the political leadership of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, who brought the lives of the world’s poorest people into the heart of Whitehall.”
And Ms Reeves wrote: “When we were elected in 1997, the amount of aid we gave as a proportion of our national income had halved over the preceding 18 years and was just 0.26%.
“By the time we left office, we were on our way to achieving the 0.7% target.
“This was down to the political leadership of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, who brought the lives of the world’s poorest people into the heart of Whitehall.”
Tory Chairman Greg Hands this morning described the scandal as “potentially very serious”.
He said: “This is potentially very serious.
“For example, three German Cabinet Ministers have resigned since 2011 due to plagiarism.
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“Plagiarism which was much longer ago than these allegations in today’s FT.
“Rachel Reeves needs to explain herself urgently.”