90% of Labour leaflets don't mention Jeremy Corbyn, LBC investigation finds

9 December 2019, 07:57

An LBC exclusive survey has found that almost 90% of Labour candidate leaflets distributed around London do not mention leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Of the 73 Labour candidates running in the capital, only 8 included a picture or any mention of the man who wants to be our Prime Minister.

In fact, more choice to refer to the London Mayor Sadiq Khan than the leader of the party.

Even members of Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet - Barry Gardiner, Sir Keir Starmer and John McDonnell - do not include Mr Corbyn in their literature.

In contrast, around 66% of Conservative leaflets mention Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

A Labour spokesperson told LBC: "As Jeremy has said, there are leaders in every community.

"We're not electing a president, we're electing Labour MPs to form a Labour government to bring about real change, stop the Tories selling out our NHS and to put money in people's pockets."

LBC's Political Editor Theo Usherwood explains why he thinks Labour candidates are shunning their leader: "There is good reason for this. When I spoke to one senior Tory close to the top of Boris Johnson's campaign, they told me their strategy was to ignore the subject of Brexit in London.

"And instead concentrate on attacking Jeremy Corbyn and the threat the Conservatives think he will pose to the economy, and particularly on the potential for collapsing house prices."