Labour’s Rachel Reeves is at the centre of a row over alleged plagiarism today after 20 unattributed examples of other people’s work were found in her new book.
The shadow chancellor admitted ‘inadvertent mistakes’ had been made in The Women Who Made Modern Economics after the FT reported its journalists had identified entire paragraphs lifted from other sources without acknowledgement.
It includes includes material from Wikipedia, The Guardian newspaper and remarks made by Labour MP Hilary Benn without attribution.
Basic Books, the publisher, defended the Labour frontbencher, saying she had not sought to present the material as original research but acknowledged that ‘factual sentences’ were not properly referenced in every instance.
A spokesperson for Ms Reeves said: ‘These were inadvertent mistakes and will be rectified in future reprints.’
But Tory chairman Greg Hands said: ‘This is potentially very serious. For example, three German cabinet ministers have resigned since 2011 due to plagiarism – plagiarism which was much longer ago than these allegations in today’s FT.
‘Rachel Reeves needs to explain herself urgently.’
The shadow chancellor admitted ‘inadvertent mistakes’ had been made in The Women Who Made Modern Economics after the FT reported its journalists had identified entire paragraphs lifted from other sources without acknowledgement.
It included includes material from Wikipedia, The Guardian newspaper and remarks made by Labour MP Hilary Benn without attribution.
The FT reported more than 20 examples had been found using manual checks rather than plagiarism detection software.
The book by Ms Reeves, who hopes to become the first woman to serve as UK chancellor after a general election expected next year, gives biographical accounts of some of the women whose ideas have shaped modern economics.
A sentence on the relationship between HG Wells and economist Beatrice Webb is exactly the same as one found on Wikipedia: ‘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.’
Similarly, a foreword to a report on international development by Mr Benn, published on the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change website, appears to have been lifted almost word for word.
Mr Benn 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 per cent.
‘By the time we left office, we were on our way to achieving the 0.7 per cent 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.’
Ms Reeves wrote: ‘When Labour was elected in 1997, the amount of aid the UK gave as a proportion of our national income had halved over the preceding 18 years and stood at just 0.26 per cent.
‘By the end of Labour’s time in office, in 2010, we were on our way to achieving the 0.7 per cent target.
‘This was down to the political leadership of Blair and Gordon Brown – and their first Secretary of State for International Development from 1997 to 2002, Clare Short, who brought the lives of the world’s poorest people into the heart of government.’
The FT also compared a sentence on the website Rethinkingpoverty.org.uk – ‘Laurencina was the daughter of a Liverpool merchant, Lawrence Heyworth, whose own family had been weavers at Bacup in Lancashire’ – to one on in Ms Reeves’ book – ‘Lawrencina was the daughter of a Liverpool merchant, Lawrence Heyworth, whose own family had been weavers at Bacup in Lancashire’ – in which only the spelling of the name is different.
Basic Books said in a statement: ‘There is an extensive and selective bibliography of over 200 books, articles and interviews.
‘Where facts are taken from multiple sources, no author would be expected to reference each and every one,’ the publisher said in a statement.
‘When factual sentences were taken from primary sources, they should have been rewritten and properly referenced.
‘We acknowledge this did not happen in every case.
‘As always in instances such as these, we will review all sources and ensure any omissions are rectified in future reprints.’
Who said what?
The FT reported more than 20 examples had been found using manual checks rather than plagiarism detection software.
Reeves:
Lawrencina was the daughter of a Liverpool merchant, Lawrence Heyworth, whose own family had been weavers at Bacup in Lancashire.
Reeves:
When Labour was elected in 1997, the amount of aid the UK gave as a proportion of our national income had halved over the preceding eighteen years and stood at just 0.26 per cent. By the end of Labour’s time in office, in 2010, we were on our way to achieving the 0.7 per cent target. This was down to the political leadership of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown – and their first Secretary of State for International Development from 1997 to 2002, Clare Short, who brought the lives of the world’s poorest people into the heart of government.
Reeves:
Once, when entering a smart restaurant in Boston, she was told that ladies were not admitted in trousers, so she took them off there and then!
Reeves:
For her part, Beatrice voiced disapproval of Wells’s ‘sordid intrigue’ with the daughter of a veteran Fabian member. 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.
Reeves:
Initiated by Pember Reeves, the Fabian Women’s Group Motherhood Special Fund Committee began a study of the domestic lives of families with new babies living on a subsistence wage of about a pound a week.
Reeves:
Rent-seeking (a concept popularised by Krueger but first identified by Adam Smith) occurs when interest groups lobby for government favours in the form of tariffs, patents, subsidies, import quotas and other market regulations. Rent-seeking behaviour is inefficient because it manipulates the existing market, rather than creating new wealth – the ‘rent-seeker’ contributes nothing to productivity in return for the favour. Krueger argues that rent-seeking behaviour in the form of restricting imports means consumers carry the ‘welfare costs’ of tariffs – they pay the price for the rent-seekers’ behaviour. Krueger also argues that rent-seeking behaviour breeds further rent-seeking behaviour by creating an economic environment where rent-seeking is the only way to successfully enter the market. In markets dominated by rent-seeking, new firms must dedicate their resources to lobbying for advantages. In 2011, Krueger’s article was named, by the American Economic Association, one of the twenty best articles in the first hundred years of the American Economic Review.
Reeves:
Keynes’s key argument was that aggregate demand (total spending in the economy) determined the overall level of economic activity, and that inadequate aggregate demand could lead to prolonged periods of high unemployment from which the economy would not automatically rebound.
Rethinkingpoverty.org:
Laurencina was the daughter of a Liverpool merchant, Lawrence Heyworth, whose own family had been weavers at Bacup in Lancashire.
Hilary Benn:
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 per cent. By the time we left office, we were on our way to achieving the 0.7 per cent 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.
The Guardian:
Once, entering a smart restaurant in Boston, she was told that ladies were not admitted in trousers. She simply took them off.
Wikipedia:
For her part, Beatrice voiced disapproval of Wells’ “sordid intrigue” with the daughter of a veteran Fabian Sydney Olivier. 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.
Wikipedia:
Initiated by Reeves in 1909, the FWG’s Motherhood Special Fund Committee began a study of the domestic lives of families with new babies living on a subsistence wage of about a pound a week.
Wikipedia:
Rent seeking occurs when interest groups lobby for government favors in the form of tariffs, patents, subsidies, import quotas, and other market regulations. Rent-seeking behavior is inefficient because it manipulates the existing market, rather than creating new wealth. Krueger says rent-seeking behavior in the form of import restrictions carry the welfare costs of tariffs, as well as an additional welfare cost due to rent-seeking behavior. She also claims that rent-seeking behavior breeds more rent-seeking behavior by creating an economic environment where participating in rent-seeking is the only way to enter the market. In markets dominated by rent-seeking, new firms must dedicate their resources to rent-seeking rather than using their resources to develop technology. In 2011, Krueger’s article was named one of the twenty best articles in the first hundred years of the American Economic Review by the American Economics Association.
Wikipedia:
He argued that aggregate demand (total spending in the economy) determined the overall level of economic activity, and that inadequate aggregate demand could lead to prolonged periods of high unemployment, and since wages and labour costs are rigid downwards the economy will not automatically rebound to full employment.
