The UK’s biggest press regulator has accused the Express website of “inflammatory” reporting during a delicate period of UK and EU negotiations on fishing last year.

The Express reported online on documents that had been “unearthed” from 1981 and 1972 but the headlines made the disputes sound contemporaneous as if they were ongoing during Brexit.

The 1981 story, reported in March 2020, was headlined: “French fisherman’s threat to HANG British naval officer exposed amid Brexit fishing row.”