Red-faced Rachel Reeves

Rachel Reeves, the Shadow Chancellor, was left embarrassed after it was revealed that her new book contains passages that were "mistakenly" copied and pasted from Wikipedia. This revelation came just one morning after a high-profile launch event for her book, 'The Women Who Made Modern Economics'.

Plagiarism Allegations

An analysis by the Financial Times discovered at least 20 instances of copy and pasting from various sources, including Wikipedia, articles in The Guardian, and other unacknowledged sources. Reeves' spokesperson denied the accusations, stating that they were "inadvertent mistakes" and would be corrected in future reprints.

Apology from Publisher

Basic Books, the publisher of Reeves' book, admitted that factual sentences taken from primary sources should have been rewritten and properly referenced. They acknowledged that this did not happen in every case.

A Celebration Turns Sour

The launch event for 'The Women Who Made Modern Economics' was held at the Institute for Government and attended by Labour's top brass, journalists, lobbyists, and advisors. However, the morning after the event, attention shifted to the plagiarism allegations, overshadowing the book's release.

Examples of Plagiarism

In one instance, a sentence about economist Beatrice Webb was found to be identical to the one on Webb's Wikipedia page. Another example showed a section of the foreword to a report published by the Tony Blair Institute appearing in Reeves' book without any changes.

Tory Chairman's Response

Tory Chairman Greg Hands described the situation as "potentially very serious" and called for Reeves to explain herself urgently. He pointed out that several German Cabinet Ministers had resigned in the past due to plagiarism scandals.