On 1 April, Jeremy Vine stood accused of trivialising a recent assault on Jeremy Corbyn.
“Attack on our democratic process”
Chief magistrate Emma Arbuthnot sentenced culprit John Murphy to 28 days in prison on 25 March for assaulting Corbyn. She said:
An attack like this is an attack on our democratic process. This is a public servant and attacks on MPs must stop. The message must go out – this must stop.
CCTV footage shows Murphy hitting Corbyn on the side of the head while holding an egg at Finsbury Park mosque and Muslim Welfare House:
CPS has released CCTV of the moment Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was hit over the head with an egg. Fair play to Corbyn for keeping tight hold of his plate of food throughout pic.twitter.com/Kv7G5Wnjjb
— Rachael Burford (@RachaelBurford) March 25, 2019
The Channel 5 show made a joke out of the situation:
We hate to say it but there appears to be some “cracks” forming in Storm and Jeremy’s onscreen relationship…@TheJeremyVine | @StormHuntley | #jeremyvine pic.twitter.com/HFX2lYcWD3
— Jeremy Vine & Storm Huntley on 5 (@JeremyVineOn5) April 1, 2019
Someone on the programme jokingly claimed that co-host Storm Huntley should be arrested for cracking the egg on Vine’s head.
There was an MP who was murdered
But on social media, people were not impressed. They noted that a far-right terrorist murdered Labour MP Jo Cox on 16 June 2016 and that another terrorist wanted to kill Labour leader Corbyn:
Someone at a rally pushes a journalist and media goes wild, rightly so. An elderly politician is punched with an egg in their hand, convicted, and the media trivialise it.Very dangerous times, MPs have death threats, have been killed, but it's all a joke to you. Have some respect
— Jade🌹🇺🇦 (@jadeo09) April 1, 2019
An egg was not thrown, it was held in a fist that landed hard on a 69 year old man's head. You think that's funny do you?
— Chelley Ryan #WeAreCollective #VoteCorbyn (@chelleryn99) April 1, 2019
Now try punching him in the side of the head. See if he can tell the difference then. 🙄
— Crispian Wheldon 🖐️🇵🇸 (@CrispianWheldon) April 1, 2019
In response, Vine denied he ‘minimised’ the assault:
If you didn't watch it, I can help you. We did no such thing.
— Jeremy Vine (@theJeremyVine) April 1, 2019
Elsewhere, prosecutor Kevin Christie said of the case:
The male was repeatedly shouting ‘respect the vote’ while being restrained by staff. Mr Corbyn described… the male with his face contorted in anger. He appeared to be acting in a very aggressive manner after striking him.
It’s concerning that a violent man was able to get close enough to Corbyn to hit him over the head with an egg. And it seems deeply irresponsible for the Jeremy Vine show to make light of an attack on the leader of the opposition.
Featured image via Jeremy Vine on 5/ YouTube
