Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Labour leadership contest: Jeremy Corbyn refuses to take part in hustings hosted by 'biased' media organisations

Campaign director accuses the Mirror, New Statesman, Guardian and Channel Four of taking ‘partisan positions against Jeremy’s leadership or campaign’

Tom Peck
Thursday 18 August 2016 21:22 BST
Comments
Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Smith (right) clash during their first leadership debate in Cardiff
Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Smith (right) clash during their first leadership debate in Cardiff (Getty)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Jeremy Corbyn is refusing to take part in Labour leadership hustings organised by the New Statesman, The Guardian, the Mirror or Channel Four on account of them having previously shown bias against him.

Jon Lansman, the director of Momentum, the group running Mr Corbyn’s leadership campaign, wrote in an email that all four had “taken partisan positions against Jeremy’s leadership or campaign... therefore can’t be regarded as impartial hosts or moderators.”

The emails, which have been seen by the Huffington Post, are part of a long email conversation between Mr Corbyn’s team and Labour HQ, whose job it is to arrange the hustings.

In an email sent on Tuesday Mr Lansman said: “Our only issue for the rest of the campaign is potentially with dates, and the identity of third party organisations proposed to host further hustings.

“We are deeply concerned that some of those media organisations or their leading presenters have taken partisan positions against Jeremy’s leadership or campaign, and therefore can’t be regarded as impartial hosts or moderators.

Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Smith clash at Labour's leadership hustings

“In the case of broadcasters, they do of course have a statutory duty of impartiality, which the party under successive leaders has always been committed to ensuring is upheld.

“On that basis, we are fine to carry on taking part in Labour Party-hosted hustings, including next week’s hustings in Scotland. We would also be glad to take part in, for example, a TULO [Trade Union and Labour Party Liaison Organisation]-hosted hustings, as took place last year, if that can be arranged.

“We have agreed to a BBC Question Time-hosted hustings and we are close to agreement on a Sky-hosted hustings. And we would would be happy to do events with Mumsnet and Facebook, depending on the nature of the proposed format.

“However on the basis of the point made above, we would not be prepared to take part in hustings debates hosted by the Mirror, New Statesman, Guardian or Channel Four.

“We are of course prepared to do interviews or audience events with all these organisations, as we have done in the past.

“We note that the next proposed event is Channel 4 and clearly in the light of the comments above this is not something which we can support.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in