New independent analysis into political coverage in the run-up to the local elections has proved that the BBC had a de-facto bias towards right-wing newspapers.

Despite strong editorial guidelines around election coverage the BBC managed to shun media titles that are sympathetic to Jeremy Corbyn in its newspaper round-up.

Those with a Conservative sway, on the other hand, dominated its coverage at the start of the month, accounting for over 70 per cent of the stories discussed on five days out of seven.

Left-leaning publications were not discussed at all on four out of the seven days, and were unable to get more than 17 per cent of the airtime on any given day.

During the period of the local elections; not counting the period leading to it, the BBC were supposed to be following their electoral guidelines, and they’ve failed miserably.. pic.twitter.com/c2AohhOn1T — Chris M (@SUP3RNAT1JRAL) May 8, 2018

The analysis comes after Labour were roundly critiqued for under-performing in the local elections, despite posting the best results in 47 years.

The BBC pointed to “mixed results” for Labour and highlighted losses in Tory safe seats such as Wandsworth and Westminster.

That’s despite Labour winning more seats than all other parties combined.

Click to see full thread below for details on how the independent study was carried out:

Here’s a look at this week’s #BBCpapers to 29th January: In summary, paper stories discussed via newspaper party endorsment: Tory: between 56% and 86%

Labour: between 0% and 25%

Non Aligned: between 0% and 45% #bbcpapers #bbcbias #bbc pic.twitter.com/pBdbPwf7F3 — Chris M (@SUP3RNAT1JRAL) January 30, 2018

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