At the local elections on 3 May, Labour recorded its biggest win in London since 1971 and gained 77 additional council seats throughout England.
Despite this success, a BBC headline declared the election produced “no clear winner”. But it didn’t fool the public and people took to social media to correct it.
Public reaction
Journalist Owen Jones was one of many to criticise how the result was portrayed:
Labour won its best result in London, and the Tories their worst result, since 1971, and this is being spun somehow as a defeat. Amazing. @PeoplesMomentum played a huge role in delivering the best result for 47 years – which is why so many Tories are now frothing all over twitter
— Owen Jones (@owenjonesjourno) May 5, 2018
His tweet led to a series of responses calling out the bias of the BBC and the rest of the mainstream media:
https://twitter.com/kindamuslim/status/992664166111629312
This in the face of a constant bombardment of smears by the BBC and Tory press.
Imagine how a general election will go when the BBC are forced to let Labour and Corbyn speak for themselves.
— Horace McSavage (@HoraceMcsavage) May 5, 2018
Come the General election. it won't be a marginal result, but a landslide for Labour on these results, as so many marginals, and even seats with big Tory majorities fall like dominoes.
— Sean Heffernan (@D24Journalist) May 5, 2018
https://twitter.com/HurstAKA/status/992716083571449856
Labour gains, Conservative loses
These tables show Labour gains in London since 2014. The BBC could have used this as their headline. Or the fact that the Conservatives lost 33 councillors in England and saw a big drop in its London vote. It chose not to. But it didn’t matter because the public wasn’t buying it and we can see why:
Indeed, the BBC did admit at one stage that the results, if replicated, would mean a Labour victory in a general election :
House of Commons projection from BBC based on council elections – Labour largest party
Labour – 283 (+21)
Tories – 280 (-38)
Lib Dems – 22 (+10) pic.twitter.com/KEXSZaA3p8— Ashley Cowburn (@ashcowburn) May 4, 2018
Public awareness
Despite attempts to say we’d reached ‘peak Corbyn’, it’s good to know the public and independent media outlets aren’t fooled. People make up their own minds on politics and aren’t easily swayed by mainstream bias.
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Featured image via Flickr/Edmond Wells
