BBC Laura hounded over Boris heckler
Labour MPs pile in after she identified activist
THE BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg has endured a barrage of abuse for pointing out that a father who confronted Boris Johnson in a hospital is a Labour activist.
The journalist was branded ‘vile’ in an online campaign calling for her to be sacked.
Yesterday Labour MPs waded into the row, calling her reporting ‘biased’ and ‘shocking’.
Political editor Miss Kuenssberg was targeted for a tweet about omar Salem, who took the Prime Minister to task about staff shortages during a visit to Whipps Cross University Hospital in north-east London.
She told her 1.1million Twitter followers that Mr Salem, whose seven-day-old daughter is being treated at the hospital, is a Labour activist, before linking to one of his posts about the incident. It prompted fury from thousands of social media users, with suggestions that the journalist’s action constituted ‘harassment’ of Mr Salem. ‘#SackLauraKuenssberg’ became one of the most-used phrases on Twitter on Wednesday.
Critics, including Jeremy Corbyn supporters, called her a ‘disgrace’ and said she was peddling to ‘sick propaganda’.
Mr Salem himself defended her, saying she was ‘doing her job without fear or favour, which is a vital part of democracy’.
But shadow fire minister Karen Lee wrote: ‘@bbclaurak and @ BBCPolitics This is dreadfully biased reporting. Aren’t labour activists allowed to be upset at the state the Tory govt have caused our NHS to be in?’
Shadow foreign minister Liz McInnes wrote: ‘Well, there’s a thing. Man obviously distressed
support for people to speak out about the state of our NHS under the Tories, whether they are members of a political party or not. No one should face abuse online or in person for either doing that or for doing their job.’
Miss Kuenssberg has been subjected to campaigns to get her sacked in the past. In 2017, she was accompanied by her own security at Labour’s conference after being bombarded with online abuse by Corbynites.
Gary Lineker posted yesterday: ‘Absolutely ludicrous pileon attempting to oust @bbclaurak from the job she does brilliantly. We’ve lost the plot.’
The BBC said: ‘Laura is a journalist who uses social media as part of her job. Any suggestions there was malicious intent behind her tweets are absurd.’
‘You’re a disgrace’