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Labour supporters hiss BBC's Laura Kuenssberg as she questions Jeremy Corbyn on EU referendum

'Journalists are people doing their job. A party that stands up for workers’ rights should not allow to be booed and hissed at. End of'

Ashley Cowburn
Thursday 02 June 2016 13:12 BST
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Laura Kuenssberg booed and hissed for asking question at Corbyn EU speech

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The BBC’s political editor was hissed by Jeremy Corbyn’s supporters as she asked the Labour leader a question after his speech on the EU referendum.

Following the hissing – and some laughter – Laura Kuenssberg asked: “For Labour voters, what do you think is more important? Defending workers’ rights or immigration and the impact on communities in this country?”

It comes after Mr Corbyn, in a Vice News documentary, accused the BBC of bias and described the organisation as “obsessed with trying to discredit him.

He added: “There is not one story on any election anywhere in the UK that the BBC will not spin into a problem for me. It is obsessive beyond belief. They are obsessed with trying to damage the leadership of the Labour party.”

Wes Streeting, a Labour MP, responded: “Journalists are people doing their job. A party that stands up for workers’ rights should not allow to be booed and hissed at. End of.”

It is not the first time, however, that the 39-year-old Scottish journalist has been targeted by the Labour leader’s supporters. A petition calling for her to sacked for “biased” coverage of the May elections was signed by more than 35,000 people.

But Campaign group 38 Degrees said the petition became dominated by misogynist abuse and they decided to take it down with the agreement of the person who initially started it.

Speaking after the event, Ms Kuenssberg said: “[Mr] Corbyn also mentioned importance of free speech in his speech…just sayin”.

At the Insitute of Engineering Technology, Mr Corbyn launched an attack on George Osborne over his Brexit recession warnings and claimed the Tory government poses the "biggest risk" of plunging Britain into an economic crisis.

The Labour leader rubbished the “prophecies of doom” and “histrionic” claims being made in the referendum campaign as he laid into the Chancellor's record on the economy. In a speech setting out the “positive” case for remaining in the European Union, Mr Corbyn slammed the way the Government was attempting to win over voters.

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