Evening Standard apologises for budget leak on Twitter

Joe Murphy, political editor of the Evening Standard, has apologised on Twitter after a picture of the front page of the newspaper was tweeted, breaking a budget embargo.He said: “I wish to apologise for a very serious mistake by the @EveningStandard earlier which resulted in our front page being tweeted. We are so sorry to the House of Commons, to the Speaker and to the Chancellor for what happened. We shall be apologosing [sic] to them”.The ‘key facts’ on the front page revealed that there would be a penny taken off the pint, and a slashed growth forecast.

I wish to apologise for a very serious mistake by the @eveningstandard earlier which resulted in our front page being tweeted. 1/2...

— Joe Murphy (@JoeMurphyLondon) March 20, 2013

... 2/2We are so sorry to the House of Commons, to the Speaker and to the Chancellor for what happened. We shall be apologosing to them

— Joe Murphy (@JoeMurphyLondon) March 20, 2013

Update: In a statement, Evening Standard editor Sarah Sands said: "An investigation is immediately underway into how this front page was made public and the individual who tweeted the page has been suspended while this takes place. "We have immediately reviewed our procedures. We are devastated that an embargo was breached and offer our heartfelt apologies."