Barry Gardiner complains to BBC over focus on anti-Semitism in Jeremy Corbyn interview
3 min read
A senior Labour frontbencher has complained to the BBC over the length of time Jeremy Corbyn was quizzed on anti-Semitism in an interview.
Shadow International Trade Secretary Barry Gardiner said the corporation had shown "bad editorial judgement" during the Labour leader's appearance on the Andrew Marr Show on Sunday.
He claimed the presenter had spent 14 minutes on the issue, but only six minutes grilling Mr Corbyn on Brexit - allegations strenuously denied by the BBC.
In the interview, Mr Corbyn was taken through the many anti-Semitism rows which dogged Labour throughout the summer.
But speaking at a PoliticsHome 'Breakfast Briefing Live' event at Labour conference, Mr Gardiner said: "No doubt there have been right wing papers and right wing editors who have loved stoking this, and anyone who saw Marr yesterday may have wondered on the editorial judgement which gave six minutes to Brexit in the conversation with Jeremy and 14 minutes to a very well video documented series of questions about anti-Semitism.
"I've taken that up with the BBC, I was meeting with them last night and I just said 'I'm not saying this is bias, I'm saying it was perfectly legitimate to tackle Jeremy on what had been a summer where anti-Semitism had dominated'.
"But to spend 14 minutes on it and six minutes on Brexit, that was in my view was bad editorial judgement."
A BBC spokesperson said: "The interview was an opportunity for the leader of the opposition to address the anti-Semitism issue in-depth for the first time.
"This has been an ongoing news story of high public interest and controversy and the programme scrutinised his actions like we would any other senior politician. We also gave prominence to other big stories including Brexit and Labour policy announcements."
The corporation also insisted the 24-minute interview had spent eight minutes on Brexit, 11 minutes on anti-Semitism and five minutes on other topics.
Elsewhere, Mr Gardiner said he was saddened that Jewish Labour MP Luciana Berger is receiving police protection at the conference in Liverpool.
He said: "Jo Cox was murdered by a right-wing extremist ... we have to keep our MPs safe, we have to keep all our party members safe and it's right that a detailed officer was provided to keep Luciana safe.
"I want to live in a society where public figures don't have to have that sort of protection and I certainly don't want them to have to have that sort of protection because of their religion.
"We all understand that in public life if you express views that some people don't like, then you are open to various forms of attack and some people on the extremes will attack you physically and therefore it's right that we are all vigilant.
"But to get to a state where a detailed officer is reqiuired for an MP I think that is a terrible tragedy. This should not in any way be acceptable."
PoliticsHome Newsletters
PoliticsHome provides the most comprehensive coverage of UK politics anywhere on the web, offering high quality original reporting and analysis: Subscribe
