Read all about it. Labour’s ahead in the election race!

Well, OK, not quite. But the latest indications from pollsters Opinium and ORB, published at the weekend, have Labour on 32 per cent, its best rating for six months. If that prediction materialised in June it would mean a better result – at least in terms of vote share – than the party achieved under Ed Miliband in 2015.

As for reading all about it, it rather depends where you get your news. In a letter to The Guardian on Saturday, more than 40 academics expressed their concern that media bias against Jeremy Corbyn was distorting political discourse. “We are not asking for eulogies of Corbyn”, they said, “but for reporting that takes seriously the proposals contained in the manifesto and that doesn’t resort to a lazy stereotype of Corbyn as a ‘problem’ to be solved.”

In 90 seconds: Corbyn launches Labour's official General Election campaign

Unease over the perceived misrepresentation of Corbyn’s leadership and policies is hardly new. Writing for The Independent last summer, the LSE’s Bart Cammaerts described a study into coverage by eight national newspapers which concluded: “Jeremy Corbyn was represented unfairly by the British press through a process of vilification that went well beyond the normal limits of fair debate and disagreement in a democracy.”

Sure enough, a glance at some of the reporting of last week’s leaked manifesto bears out the idea that the press – or at least a significant proportion of it – isn’t wild about Corbyn’s vision for Britain.

“Labour’s manifesto to drag us back to the 1970s”, shrilled the Daily Mail’s front page on Thursday, while the Sun went with “Jezza’s got the Trots”. A day later the Daily Express was reporting on “Calamity Corbyn’s day of chaos”.

Corbyn supporters point out that these pejorative headlines all seem rather at odds with the reaction of the general public to the policies that Labour’s manifesto actually set out. In a ComRes survey for the Daily Mirror, 52 per cent of respondents said they supported renationalisation of the railways, while 71 per cent of those surveyed support the idea of banning zero-hours contracts. And 74 per cent were in favour of the proposal to keep the retirement age at 66.

The Labour faithful will be waiting keenly for the results of the next set of opinion polls – the first to rely on fieldwork taking place after the manifesto pledges were made public. If the apparent support for Jeremy Corbyn’s policies translates to a further bounce in the polls, it’ll be one in the eye for the right-wing media barons.

UK General Election 2017 Show all 47 1 /47 UK General Election 2017 UK General Election 2017 12 June 2017 British Prime Minister Theresa May leaves 10 Downing Street for the 1922 committee on June 12, 2017 in London, England. British Prime Minister Theresa May held her first cabinet meeting with her re-shuffled team today Getty Images UK General Election 2017 12 June 2017 DUP leader Arlene Foster stands alongside deputy leader Nigel Dodds as they hold a press conference at Stormont Castle as the Stormont assembly power sharing negotiations reconvene following the general election on June 12, 2017 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Discussions between the DUP and the Conservative party are also continuing in the wake of the UK general election as Prime Minister Theresa May looks to form a government with the help of the Democratic Unionist parties ten Westminster seats. 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Rex UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - JUNE 09: DUP leader and Northern Ireland former First Minister Arlene Foster (C) holds a brief press conference with the DUP's newly elected Westminster candidates who stood in the general election Getty Images UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 A " Get May Out" demo took place opposite the gates of Downing Street, calling for May to resign, after the shock election results and Mays coalition with the DUP. Rex Features UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 A demonstrator wears a mask depicting Britain's Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party Theresa May, poses with a mock gravestone bearing the words "Hard Brexit, RIP", during a protest photocall near the entrance 10 Downing Street in central London AFP/Getty Images UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May arrives at the Conservative Party's headquarters in London Reuters UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Britain's Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party Theresa May flanked by her husband Philip delivers a statement outside 10 Downing Street in central Londo Getty UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Britain's Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party Theresa May leaves Buckingham Palace in London the day after a general election in which the Conservatives lost their majority Getty Images UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 A TV cameraman watches the door of 10 Downing Street in London Getty Images UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is greeted by his Office Director Karie Murphy as he arrives at Labour Party HQ in Westminster, London, after he called on the Prime Minister to resign, saying she should 'go and make way for a government that is truly representative of this country' Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May arrives at the Conservative Party's headquarters with her husband Philip in London REUTERS/Peter Nicholls UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Ukip leader Paul Nuttall speaks during a press conference at Boston West Golf Club where he announced that he is standing down as party leader Joe Giddens/PA UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Ruth Davidson, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, leaves the counting centre for Britain's general election with her partner Jen Wilson in Edinburgh, Scotland REUTERS/Russell Cheyne UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale celebrates with candidate for Edinburgh South Ian Murray as he retains his seat at the Meadowbank Sports Centre counting centre in Edinburgh, Scotland Getty Images UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 First Minister Nicola Sturgeon speaks to the media at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, as counting is under way for the General Election Andrew Milligan/PA Wire UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson at Meadowbank Sports Centre in Edinburgh, as counting is under way for the General Election PA UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Scottish National Party (SNP) leader Nicola Sturgeon reacts at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, Scotland EPA UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Jeremy Corbyn, leader of Britain's opposition Labour Party, arrives at the Labour Party's Headquarters in London REUTERS/Marko Djurica UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 UKIP Leader Paul Nuttall leaves in a car following the vote count for the constituency of Boston and Skegness in Boston, England Anthony Devlin/Getty Images UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 British Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader Theresa May speaks at the declaration at the election count at the Magnet Leisure Centre in Maidenhead, England. 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Getty Images UK General Election 2017 6 June 2017 A supporter wears a pair of Jeremy Corbyn decorated tights at a general election campaign event in Birmingham, central England, on June 6, 2017. Britain goes to the polls on June 8 to vote in a general election only days after another deadly terror attack in the nation's captial. AFP/Getty Images UK General Election 2017 6 June 2017 A picture taken in London, shows election leaflets from various parties displayed ahead of the United Kingdom's general elections. Britain goes to the polls on June 8 to vote in a general election only days after another terrorist attack on the nation's capital AFP/Getty Images UK General Election 2017 6 June 2017 Election workers, George Gaunt and Luca Tragid deliver the first ballot boxes, on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh AFP UK General Election 2017 6 June 2017 British Prime Minister Theresa May meets with Conservative party supporters during an election campaign visit to a bakery during an election campaign visit on June 6, 2017 in Fleetwood, north-west England. 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If elected in next week's general election Mr Corbyn is pledging to create a million new jobs and to scrap zero-hours contracts Getty Images UK General Election 2017 1 June 2017 Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party leader Ruth Davidson joins a selection of Scottish Conservative election candidates and activists during campaigning on May 1, 2017 in South Queensferry, Scotland. With only seven days to go until the general election on June 8th, polls are showing the SNP out in front and the Conservatives set to close in on Labour. Getty Images UK General Election 2017 29 May 2017 Prime Minister Theresa May canvasses in Richmond with Conservative candidate Zac Goldsmith on May 29, 2017 in London, United Kingdom. After suffering defeat in the London Mayoral election Zac Goldsmith resigned over the Government's position on Heathrow expansion. He stood as an Independent but lost in a by-election to the Liberal Democrats. Britain goes to the polls on June 8 to elect a new parliament in a general election Getty Images UK General Election 2017 22 May 2017 Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron poses for a selfie taken by carer April Preston during a General Election campaign visit to the Barlow Medical Centre, in Didsbury, Manchester Yui Mok/PA UK General Election 2017 22 May 2017 Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May speaks at an election campaign event in Wrexham, Wales Reuters UK General Election 2017 22 May 2017 Britain's main opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, and Labour's former deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, exit the party's general election campaign 'battle' bus as they arrive at an event in Kingston upon Hull, northern England Getty Images UK General Election 2017 22 May 2017 Britain's main opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn walks with supporters between venues, before speaking again at another general election campaign event in Kingston upon Hull, northern England Getty Images UK General Election 2017 22 May 2017 An anti-fox hunting protester is taken away and arrested by police outside the venue where Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May was due to launch the Welsh Conservative general election manifesto at Gresford Memorial Hall in the village of Gresford, near Wrexham, North Wales, on May 22, 2017. 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Yet just as some of the media portrayals of Jeremy Corbyn are disingenuously simplistic, so is the idea that blame for Labour’s probable election defeat can be laid purely at the door of the disreputable MSM or some sort of broader establishment stitch-up. Indeed, arguments along those lines simply give the impression that Corbyn’s core supporters are more interested in dismissing readers of the Mail or the Sun, than in trying to win their votes. Barry Gardiner’s attack on the BBC last week taps into the same current, with the media presented as the enemy – both of the party and, by extension, of the people.

Media-bashing worked for Donald Trump but it’s not a game Jeremy Corbyn and his team should be getting into. For one thing, it bolsters the narrative that he is at odds with the fabric of British society. For another, it indicates an acceptance that the British media can – and will – dictate how the public will vote. That has been always been arguable at best, and it is increasingly less likely as voters obtain information from an ever-wider variety of sources.

Moreover, while having a pop at the media is all too easy, it distracts Labour from what should be the more important task of tackling those areas where the party has yet to convince potential supporters: the party’s position on Brexit for one, Corbyn’s personal leadership abilities for another.

Most importantly though, persistent accusations of media bias and of the press interfering in the democratic process have the capacity to undermine the current focus on Labour’s improved standing. And let’s make no mistake, this election campaign is not panning out quite how many predicted. Ukip’s collapse is on course to be more complete than anyone anticipated. The Lib Dem revival, meantime, is yet to emerge. Theresa May might be enjoying a comfortable poll lead but it is plain the Tory brand is less strong than the Prime Minister’s personal ratings.

And as time goes by, even May’s individual qualities – for so long her number one selling point – appear less convincing. Her refusal to take part in TV debates, her bland answers to straightforward questions and her apparent anxiety about being caught off-guard have done her no favours. Corbyn’s man of the people act – and the natty “For the Many, Not the Few” slogan – is starting to look less forlorn.