Labour frontbencher attacks BBC over privately-educated journalists
2 min read
A Labour frontbencher has hit out at the number of privately-educated BBC journalists.
In an extraordinary on-air attack, shadow education minister Mike Kane claimed he had been interviewed by a succession of reporters from the corporation who were not "educated in a state local school".
He also appeared to criticise the BBC over last week's figures showing most of its highest-paid presenters are men.
Mr Kane's remarks came as he was pressed on the confusion surrounding Labour's position on student debt.
The Conservatives have accused Jeremy Corbyn of a U-turn after he claimed during the election that he would "deal with" the issue if he became Prime Minister.
Since then, however, the Labour leader has insisted that was not a pledge to wipe out all students debts – despite some frontbenchers claiming at the time that it was.
Asked about the apparent confusion on Radio Four's Today programme this morning, Mr Kane said: "In a sense I am surprised this is a news story because in a sense the Government are reversed on grammar schools, they're reversing on budgets."
He added: "I have had a terrible run of form, because I have been asked by a number of BBC journalists over the last few weeks and over the general election campaign and not one of them has been – you know, if we look at the gender pay gap that we have last week, not one of them was educated in a state local school."
Tory MP Maria Caulfield said Mr Kane's comments were "bizarre".
"Labour aren’t prepared to answer simple questions about their fantasy policies – because they know they can’t back them up," she said. "They betrayed students in the run up to the election and are now running scared from scrutiny."
