Gardiner has to remind BBC interviewer how no-confidence motion works and what powers Labour has in opposition – did the same last December

Barry Gardiner on this morning’s Marr show

Shadow Trade Secretary Barry Gardiner, Labour’s most consistent media performer, appeared on this morning’s edition of the BBC’s Marr programme.

Andrew Marr pressed the line that Labour supports a new referendum and can bring one about more easily than a general election – forcing Gardiner to educate him on how Parliament actually works.

And Gardiner went to the unusual length of pointing out to Marr and to BBC viewers that the BBC man was intentionally misleading them about the options – and in fact was telling them the exact opposite of reality:

Well, actually you’ve got it entirely the wrong way round – because you know very well that the entire mechanism of Parliament means that we as the Opposition have no power to deliver a second referendum.

Marr attempted to interrupt and claim that Labour had no power to force an election either – but Gardiner shut him down:

Gardiner knew Marr is perfectly well aware how the no-confidence process works – because he’d already had to publicly school Marr on his misleading claims in a broadcast last December.

In fact, as the SKWAWKBOX showed its readers two weeks ago, not only is a general election the only power that Labour has over the schedule of binding parliamentary debates and votes, but the parliamentary ‘mechanism’, as Gardiner described it, means that a general election is the only realistic means of blocking a no-deal Brexit.

SKWAWKBOX view:

Gardiner has owned numerous interviewers and anchors since the 2017 general election campaign revealed him to be as intolerant of media misrepresentation as he is polite.



He shone once again this morning on Marr, but the persistent and wilful misrepresentation of parliamentary facts for the sake of an Establishment narrative across a variety of outlets and platforms is a national scandal.



More than ever the independent left media and Labour’s supporters on social media are crucial to any hope of balanced political discussion and information for the wider public.

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