The BBC’s political editor inaccurately reported Jeremy Corbyn’s views about shoot-to-kill policies in the aftermath of the terror attacks in Paris, according to the BBC Trust.

The broadcaster’s regulator concluded that a Laura Kuenssberg report for the News at Six in November 2015 breached the broadcaster’s impartiality and accuracy guidelines, in a ruling that triggered an angry response from the corporation’s director of news.

The News at Six item included a clip of the Labour leader stating: “I am not happy with a shoot-to-kill policy in general. I think that is quite dangerous and I think can often be counterproductive.”



Kuenssberg had presented that as Corbyn’s response to a question put to him on whether he would be “happy for British officers to pull the trigger in the event of a Paris-style attack”, but the Trust concluded that Corbyn had been speaking in a different context.

The Labour leader had been responding to a question asking whether he would be happy to order police or military “to shoot to kill” on Britain’s streets – and not specifically regarding a Paris-style attack in the UK.

In response to an earlier question specifically about the use of the security services in the event of a terrorist attack in London, which was not used in the programme, Corbyn had replied: “Of course you’d bring people on to the streets to prevent and ensure there is safety within our society, much better that’s done by the police than security services, much better we have strong and effective community policing, neighbourhood policing and a cohesive society that brings people together.”

Laura Kuenssberg’s interview with Jeremy Corbyn before it was edited for the News at Six

The complainant, who is not named, but is neither Corbyn nor “anyone on his behalf”, said that the news report misrepresented the Labour leader’s views on the use of lethal force and that it had wrongly suggested he was against the additional security measures which the item had said the government was proposing.

The Trust found that the inaccuracy was “compounded” when Kuenssberg went on to state that Corbyn’s message “couldn’t be more different” to that of the prime minister, who was about to publish anti-terrorism proposals.

The Trust agreed with the complainant, pointing out accuracy in any one programme rather than the entire output was particularly important when dealing “with a critical question at a time of extreme national concern”.

“According to this high standard, the report had not been duly accurate in how it framed the extract it used from Mr Corbyn’s interview,” it said.

In its finding the Trust also said that there was no evidence of bias or of intent on the part of the senior BBC journalist, however.

James Harding, the director of BBC news, rejected the Trust’s ruling and called Kuenssberg “an outstanding journalist and political editor with the utmost integrity and professionalism”.

“While we respect the Trust and the people who work there, we disagree with this finding,” he said. “BBC News reported on the leader of the opposition in the same way it would any other politician.

“It is striking that the Trust itself said there was ‘no evidence of bias’. Indeed, it also said the news report was ‘compiled in good faith’.

“The process is now concluded and BBC News formally notes the Trust’s finding.”

One BBC source said the ruling, possibly the last on a major issue for the soon-to-be disbanded regulator, had caused “lots of consternation in the newsroom”.

The BBC had published the entire transcript of the interview earlier the same day, which, it had argued, made the context clear. The added that the complaint had been rejected on four separate occasions before the Trust’s final ruling.

Kuenssberg, named journalist of the year by the Press Gazette in November, has often received hostility from Corbyn supporters, who have also clashed with other members of the mainstream media some regard as unsympathetic.

From the beginning of April, the Trust will be disbanded and its responsibilities to judge impartiality, accuracy and bias will transfer to the media regulator Ofcom.

The only sanction from rulings made by the Trust is that of publication.