Watch: Len McCluskey’s polling claims backfire on Question Time

On last night’s Question Time, David Dimbleby chaired a panel — comprised of Ruth Davidson, Lisa Nandy, Paul Nuttall, Len McCluskey and the IEA’s Kate Andrews — from Carlisle. With the Unite election underway, McCluskey — who is standing for re-election — tried to use his appearance to defend Labour’s bad polling under Jeremy Corbyn,

Explaining why his comrade had such bad popularity ratings, Red Len criticised the MSM (aka Mainstream Media) for creating a ‘horrible horrible media barrier’. But the bigger problem, according to Len, is the PLP. He said that before the Labour coup last summer — which saw Corbyn’s shadow cabinet resign and Owen Smith mount a leadership challenge over the Labour leader’s inadequate leadership during the EU referendum — Labour and the Tories were actually ‘neck and neck’ in the polls:

‘I would make this point. Before the disastrous coup that happened last summer, the opinion polls were showed Labour were neck and neck.