News
Louis Dor
Jul 26, 2016
Earlier this week, Jeremy Corbyn attended a leadership rally in Salford, where he berated the mainstream media for failing to cover a Labour victory.
I'm going to tell you something now you won't have read in any of the papers, because none of them had any space to carry it whatsoever, because they are very, very busy with all the important news of the day.
On Thursday, which is 36 hours ago, so the news should have got through by now, there was a by election in the district of Thanet, in north Kent, a by election in which the Labour candidate Penny Newman took the seat from UKIP and won it for Labour.
The victory he spoke of was a parish council election in Ramsgate, in which Labour candidate Penny Newman defeated the Ukip candidate Roy Potts by 77 votes, in a 485 vote election (13 per cent turnout).
Roy Potts won the larger election to Thanet District Council, defeating the Labour candidate David Green by 295 votes to 281 (20 per cent turnout).
Ukip retained control of Thanet District Council, the greater victory.
Here's some more of the mainstream media not telling you how things are:
1. The latest ICM poll shows Labour are 16 points off the Tories and are at their lowest voteshare since October 2009.
2. This poll looks even worse when made into seat predictions.
3. The results were mirrored by the latest YouGov tracker, which for a mid-term poll is deeply worrying.
4. The problem is not only one of party policy and appeal. Voters think Corbyn is a poor leader.
5. And comparisons to previous Labour leaders are not favourable at this point.
6. Nor are comparisons to Theresa May.
7. He's lost the support of his MPs, who last month cast a vote of no confidence.
8. Even Labour supporters are now dissatisfied with him on the whole, for the first time.
9. While the number of the broader electorate who think he is a poor leader of the opposition is only growing.
10. The percentage of the electorate who think Labour should change leader is also growing.
11. A snap YouGov poll found he's not the preferred Labour candidate, behind Cooper and no choice.
12. While respondents to the online poll made it clear they'd pick anyone over Corbyn.
But polls lie, don't they?
Sort of, they're rarely exact and have got it wrong a few times recently.
In fact, in recent elections they've overestimated Labour's voteshare substantially.
Ah.
More: Corbyn loses no confidence motion: The problem with the Labour party - in five charts
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