Journalists are rounding on the BBC over its Vote Leave ‘election fraud’ coverage

The BBC logo
Support us and go ad-free

In the late evening on 3 July, the BBC broke this story:

Vote Leave broke electoral law, Electoral Commission expected to say

LBC host James O’Brien criticised the way the story was covered:

Read on...

Support us and go ad-free

And he wasn’t the only journalist to raise issue with the BBC‘s coverage.

The report

The draft report hasn’t been published by the Electoral Commission. But details of its contents were leaked to the press by Vote Leave. The Electoral Commission described the decision as “unusual”:

According to Vote Leave, the Electoral Commission is accusing it of four breaches of the law:

  • Breaking the £7m spending limit.
  • Inaccurately reporting its return on election expenditure.
  • Missing invoices and receipts.
  • Failing to comply with a statutory notice.

But Matthew Elliott, the former chief executive of Vote Leave, strongly denies the allegations. He has submitted a 500-page report to the Electoral Commission challenging the accusations.

Enter the BBC

But it’s the BBC‘s coverage of the leak that’s drawn criticism from journalists.

Channel 4‘s Krishnan Guru-Murthy asked:

Other journalists were also unimpressed:

Not just journalists

It wasn’t just journalists who had a problem with the BBC‘s coverage, though. Whistleblower Shahmir Sanni tweeted:

Another whistleblower, Christopher Wylie, also raised issues, suggesting the BBC had been manipulated:

Meanwhile, barrister Jo Maugham wrote:

‘Don’t believe the spin’

Award-winning journalist Carole Cadwalladr, who has doggedly pursued the story, argued that it’s important not to believe the spin:

Although Guru-Murthy suggested the BBC had a scoop that it was inevitably going to publish:

The BBC‘s live political programmes editor responded to the accusations:

And head of BBC Westminster insisted that the BBC is impartial:

But with so many leading journalists calling out the BBC‘s coverage, the broadcaster still has serious questions to answer.

Get Involved!

Support The Canary so we can keep holding the powerful to account.

Featured image via Flickr/Tim Loudon

Support us and go ad-free

We know everyone is suffering under the Tories - but the Canary is a vital weapon in our fight back, and we need your support

The Canary Workers’ Co-op knows life is hard. The Tories are waging a class war against us we’re all having to fight. But like trade unions and community organising, truly independent working-class media is a vital weapon in our armoury.

The Canary doesn’t have the budget of the corporate media. In fact, our income is over 1,000 times less than the Guardian’s. What we do have is a radical agenda that disrupts power and amplifies marginalised communities. But we can only do this with our readers’ support.

So please, help us continue to spread messages of resistance and hope. Even the smallest donation would mean the world to us.

Support us

Comments are closed