The Labour leader complained that the ‘mainstream media’ are ‘hostile’ towards him
Jeremy Corbyn complained about how he is treated by the British press on Saturday.
The Labour leader was speaking at a public rally in Broxtowe, whose MP Anna Soubry resigned from the Conservative Party this week to join The Independent Group. Soubry has a majority of 863 votes.
Labour said the speech was intended to offer hope to people up and down the country, “instead of the same old establishment formula of cuts, privatisation and austerity.”
But in a line that was not released to media ahead of the appearance, Corbyn joked that the “mainstream media” were hostile towards him and overly focusing on racism in the Labour party.
Corbyn: As you may have noticed, the MSM can be hostile. I did an interview for Sky and they kept asking me about racism and why people were leaving the party, rather than things I wanted to talk about. pic.twitter.com/UvK2t1xqhF
— Ben (@Jamin2g) February 23, 2019
He said: “As you may have noticed, some of the mainstream media are sometimes slightly hostile and critical.
“I’ve noticed it, and what I’ve noticed is they’re very unkeen on relating to the issues that people face.
“I did an interview for Sky last night, it was 14 minutes the interview. We got to, I think, minute 12 before I intervened and said ‘Is there any chance anybody other than an MP could be referred to in any of your questions, and we could actually talk about the homeless, the poverty, the hospital waiting lists. Is there any chance we could talk about the issues that people face in their day-to-day lives?'”
In that interview with Sky News, Corbyn was repeatedly questioned about the departures of eight of his MPs to form the Independent Group, having resigned from the Labour party.
The words of those MPs, who accused their former party of failing to deal with anti-Semitism, were repeatedly put to Corbyn, who was visibly rankled.
Corbyn was joined at the rally by the shadow chancellor John McDonnell and shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry.
