Here's how the Daily Mail admitted its headline about EU migrant crime was wrong

The Daily Mail has 'clarified' a story which claimed EU migrants living in the UK commit hundreds of crimes a week - as it turns out, the headline was wrong.

The story from February said that an astonishing 700 crimes committed by EU citizens a week - a jump of 40 per cent in five years - were a threat to the safety and wellbeing of Britons.

It added that despite the 'official figures', only 19,227 of these foreign criminals had been deported - a compelling argument in favour of Brexit.

On Monday, the Mail issued a correction explaining that the '700' figure actually referred to 'notifications' regarding all sorts of legal and criminal justice system procedures, rather than 'convictions' or crimes.

Here's the correction on p2 of Monday's paper

The online headline in the story has now been changed to read 'notifications' rather than 'convictions'.

Back in February, InFacts factchecked the Mail's claim by speaking to Acro, the organisation that produced the report the story was based on.

A spokesperson told them the data:

...does not relate to the number of foreign nationals convicted in the UK, nor does it directly correlate to the total number of convictions.

The '700' figure referred to every instance in which the UK notified another country about convictions or updates - for example, breaking a court order or an appeal:

In other words, the figures don’t show how many EU migrants have been convicted of crimes. They don’t show how many convictions involving EU migrants have taken place. And they don’t show how many crimes have been committed by EU migrants.

On top of that, the 40 per cent increase claim doesn't tally with the idea that "the bloc's freedom of movement rules are routinely being abused", since between 2010 - 2015 the number of EU nationals living in the UK rose by 44 per cent.

Which means there has actually been a drop in criminal notifications per number of UK-based EU citizens.

The Express and the Telegraph also picked up the original 'convictions' angle - both of their stories remained uncorrected at time of publication:

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