Labour Party MP Blames Corbyn’s Defeat on BBC Bias

TOPSHOT - Britain's opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn reacts during the launch
OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images
Kurt Zindulka

A top Labour Party MP has blamed the party’s historic election defeat under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn on bias against the party from the BBC.

The shadow transport secretary Andy McDonald said that the BBC intentionally sabotaged the Labour Party and its hard-left leader Jeremy Corbyn in the lead up to last week’s general election.

“We got this wrong, but if the BBC are going to hold themselves out as somehow having conducted themselves in an impartial manner, I think they’ve really got to have a look in the mirror. We’ve got a lot to say about this,” he told BBC Radio 5.

When asked if he believed that the bias was conscious in its execution, McDonald said: “Consciously, yes.”

In response to Mr McDonald’s interview, his fellow Labour Party member Jonathan Reynolds and shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said: “The media can be frustrating, and some of the tabloids at times just embarrassing, but blaming them for last Thursday is an abdication of responsibility.”

Andy McDonald using the excuse of BBC bias for Labour’s historic electoral defeat comes days after the former Labour Party Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, blamed Corbyn’s loss on the “Jewish Vote”.

The BBC, Britain’s taxpayer-funded public service broadcaster, has long been accused of having a left-wing bias against conservatives and Brexiteers.

A study conducted in 2018 by the think tank Civitas found that the BBC disproportionately promoted pro-EU viewpoints on its Radio 4’s flagship Today programme between 2005 and 2015.

A poll conducted in November found that 64 per cent of all Britons believed that the BBC is biased to some degree. The poll found that 72 per cent of Leavers believed the BBC was “somewhat” or “greatly” biased.  This belief was also shared by a majority of Remainers, 59 per cent of whom believed there is bias at the BBC.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is considering making changes to the BBC’s licence fee system, a tax on the British public through which the broadcaster derives funding for its programmes.  The BBC said that it would lose £200 million should the prime minister decriminalise non-payment of the fee.

Follow Kurt on Twitter @KurtZindulka

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.