Commotion at Jeremy Corbyn’s Federation of Small Businesses presser just now when questions to the Labour leader on Syria were dramatically shouted down by some of those present. BBC journalist Mark Lobel wanted to ask the leader of the opposition about the top international story of the day but was obstructed, apparently contrary to the advice of Corbyn’s press team.

Audience members at FSB conference also started shouting “no” at BBC journalist who attempted to ask about Syria. He was also putting biz Q — Kate McCann (@KateEMcCann) 11 April 2017

Journalists were told before that there could be only one question on each topic. BBC claimed Syria. Corbyn wouldn’t answer it. — Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) 11 April 2017

Bizarrely, Corbyn departed the podium to remonstrate with Lobel. Looks like questions on other topics weren’t getting anywhere either:

“Thank you very much, very helpful,” Corbyn tells colleague @benglaze for asking about dire polls. Erm… asking helpful Qs isn’t our job — Dan Bloom (@danbloom1) 11 April 2017

It’s understood Corbyn did do interviews about Syria once he was off the platform.

Taking one question about a major news story does not preclude other questions on business policy – that’s not how it works…