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Labour has called for ‘democratic reform’ of news broadcasters over claims the party were treated unfairly during the 2019 election campaign.

Shadow Transport Secretary Andy McDonald said broadcasters dubbing the race the ‘ Brexit Election’ played into Boris Johnson ’s campaign strategy and gave him the upper hand.

Writing for the Mirror, Mr McDonald said: “For six weeks the broadcasters dubbed this “the Brexit election”, consciously playing into Boris Johnson’s core campaign message that this election was about Brexit and that only he could “get Brexit done”.”

He recounted one incident, the morning after the election where Labour MP Dan Carden was accused by a Sky News host of “blaming Brexit” for Labour’s defeat.

Mr McDonald said: “Dan laughed and pointed to the coffee table they were sitting at, which had “the Brexit election” stamped on it in huge letters.”

(Image: Ian Cooper / Teesside Live)

Brexit received twice as much coverage as the economy during the campaign, and the NHS, transport and climate change received even less airtime, according to analysis by Loughborough University.

Mr McDonald claimed: “It was a political choice for broadcasters to use ‘the Brexit election’ rather than, say, ‘the NHS election’, and it gave the Tories a clear advantage over Labour.”

The Tories have also attacked the media with Mr Johnson refusing to appear on leaders' debates on Sky and Channel 4 during the election campaign, ministers boycotting BBC Radio 4's Today programme and the Mirror being banned from the Tory election bus.

This week newspaper bosses hit out a Downing Street for trying to seize control of crucial daily press briefings.

(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

The briefings, usually held in the House of Commons, where journalists are based, will be moved to Number 9 Downing Street - where the Government have more control on which journalists can attend.

Jeremy Corbyn has previously called for a broad discussion on democratisation of the media.

Among his suggestions, outlined in a 2018 speech, were the election of some BBC board members by staff and licence fee payers, and the reduction or removal of the government’s powers of appointment.

And he suggested placing the BBC on a permanent statutory footing to end government control through charter renewal.

Mr McDonald wrote: “I’m not in any way suggesting that this was the main cause of Labour’s defeat.

“But clearly media coverage is one of a number of contributing factors in elections and biased media coverage seriously undermines our democratic process.

“The conduct of broadcasters in this election demonstrates the urgent need to debate democratic reforms to our media.”