Fact check: Labour Party updated its website in September

A widely shared social media post has claimed that Labour “completely removed” references to its manifesto on its website.

Evaluation

The claim is false. Labour did redesign its website in September, deleting some references to its manifesto. However, other references to the document still remain on its home page, and the full manifesto – a public declaration of a party’s policy and aims – is still available on its website.

The facts

The claim includes a screenshot showing a before and after view of the Labour Party’s website. This is an accurate screenshot and comes from a political news website.

Using the Wayback Machine – an archive of websites which shows how they looked at a particular time and date – it is possible to narrow down the dates that the Labour Party’s website changed to somewhere between September 15 and September 23.

The archived page from September 15 shows that Labour previously had three sections in the navigation bar which runs along the top of its homepage: Join Labour; Labour People; and More.

If a user clicked on “More” they would be given a drop-down box with seven headline sections: Campaign for Labour; Labour’s Manifesto; Labour People; Updates; About Us; Members Area; and Conference.

Under the Labour’s Manifesto headline there were several options to click on: Change – Labour’s manifesto; Mission-driven government; Kickstart economic growth; Make Britain a clean energy superpower; Take back our streets; Break down barriers to opportunity; Build an NHS fit for the future; and National Policy Forum.

By September 23 some changes had been made: in the navigation bar, the Join Labour option had been removed, and two new sections had been included: What we’ve delivered; and Plan for Change.

Under the “More” drop-down menu there were further updates: the Labour’s Manifesto headline had been replaced by one called Plan for Change.

Under the Plan for Change section, five of the options had stayed the same, but three sections had been removed: Change – Labour’s manifesto; Mission-driven government; and National Policy Forum.

The former two had been replaced by three new sections: Economic stability; Secure borders; and National security. Meanwhile, National Policy Forum had been moved to a different section in the drop-down menu.

But this was not the only mention of Labour’s 2024 manifesto on its home page. At the bottom of the home page there is still a header entitled “Labour’s manifesto”. Under this it lists a range of options: Mission-driven government; Kickstart economic growth; Make Britain a clean energy superpower; Take back our streets; Break down barriers to opportunity; and Build an NHS fit for the future. This remains unchanged compared with September 15.

Labour’s full manifesto from the 2024 general election is also still available on the website.

Links

Post on X (archived)

Labour Manifesto Quietly Hidden from Top of Party Website (archived)

Labour Party home page (archived on November 11, September 23, and September 15)

Labour Party 2024 manifesto (archived)