How the establishment media lost its sh*t after Labour crushed the Brexit Party last night

Jeremy Corbyn and Nigel Farage
Fréa Lockley


Labour’s Lisa Forbes has won the by-election in Peterborough. It was a tough contest in a city that voted strongly for the Brexit Party in the recent European elections. Given those results, this was a crushing victory for Corbyn-Led Labour. Yet most establishment media outlets ignored the winner. Instead, Nigel Farage went on loop.

The winner takes it all

Forbes stood after Labour’s Fiona Onasanya was convicted for “lying over a speeding offence”. Defending a seat that your own party has lost is never easy, not least in a city that voted 60.9% Leave. Many predicted that this election might usher in the first Brexit Party MP, with 1/7 odds on Mike Greene winning.

Moments before the results, Farage reportedly left the building “through a backdoor” sensing defeat.

In her victory speech, after winning by 683 votes, Forbes said:

Tonight’s result is significant because it shows that the politics of division will never win.

Related articles

In fact, Forbes pushed a 1.2% lead over the Conservatives in 2017, to a 2% lead over the Brexit Party and a whopping 9.5% lead over the Tories.

Against the odds, Labour won:

So you’d think that most outlets would interview Forbes. After all, she actually won. But “journos and centrists” don’t always work this way:

Loser

The following morning, Farage jumped straight in for an interview with John Humphrys on BBC Radio 4‘s Today programme.

Many people shared their disgust over this interview:

Next Farage spewed up on BBC Breakfast:

One commentator astutely noted the only BBC outlet Farage seemed to have missed:

Farage also cropped up on Good Morning Britain. Again, people asked why the show was interviewing the losing party:

This didn’t go unnoticed:

Who won?

The print press didn’t do any better, either. Even the (allegedly) left-of-centre Guardian‘s headline read: “Peterborough byelection result: Labour scrapes past Brexit party to hold seat”.

Although, despite the lack of fair reporting, there’s another positive to emerge from this by-election. The Conservatives came third. And that’s worrying people like Dominic Raab and Boris Johnson:

The establishment media totally lost its shit over these election results. There’s no justification for giving the dangerous dog-whistle-racist Farage any platform because he lost. This was a Labour victory. Yet, although the media response shows just what we’re up against, this result offers a lot of hope. And in these days of Brexit-dominated chaos, it’s a very big win.

Featured images via Wikimedia – Rwendland / Flickr – Gage Skidmore

We need your help ...

The coronavirus pandemic is changing our world, fast. And we will do all we can to keep bringing you news and analysis throughout. But we are worried about maintaining enough income to pay our staff and minimal overheads.

Now, more than ever, we need a vibrant, independent media that holds the government to account and calls it out when it puts vested economic interests above human lives. We need a media that shows solidarity with the people most affected by the crisis – and one that can help to build a world based on collaboration and compassion.

We have been fighting against an establishment that is trying to shut us down. And like most independent media, we don’t have the deep pockets of investors to call on to bail us out.

Can you help by chipping in a few pounds each month?

The Canary Support us
  • Show Comments

    1. delicious result. me think support for Labour stood firm there since 2017. (won by 607 votes last time and this time by slightly better number of votes). seems Cons voters switched to Brexit party en masse, confirming their voters’ rejection of May’s abysmal deal(s).
      Let Boris Johnson’s supporting London (an SE) remainers moan as much as they want, there will not be obliged with the second referendum. I don’t think Johnson, or any new con PM has the support (in the commons) or the guts to leave without a deal. So given EU’s refusal (hopefully) to new extension unless change of government, general election is more and more likely now.

      Report comment

    2. The real scandal in Labour isn’t that anti-semitism which statistically less than any other major UK poitical party but that the MSM is just going along for the ride with out questioning the narrative. You expect such behaviour from the Tory press but should the BBC & ITN also joining in?

      Report comment

    3. Labour win and increase majority, Brexit con merchants come second, Tories dismal third every MSM hack declares Labour scrape victory !!!! WTF ??? have our Journalists really become so inept that they just copy whatever their owners and bosses tell them ? Farage on every TV show they could shoehorn him into, its only a matter of time before he appears on strictly come dancing. I wonder if the BBC will ever get its act together and start being a proper decent broadcaster although I would have to say I doubt it.

      The Peterborough result has provided hope at last, that people are beginning to see through the MSM bulls**t see the need for change and want it

      Report comment

    4. The headline is certainly amusing.

      “…Labour crushed the Brexit Party last night”

      That’s crushed by 2 percentage points(30.9 to 28.9). By that measure Mrs May “crushed” Mr Corbyn at the 2017 election (42.4 to 40.0)

      Report comment

    Leave a Reply

    Join the conversation

    Please read our comment moderation policy here.

Related articles