11 December episode conscpicuous by absence from programme’s catch-up home-page
The day before polling took place in the general election, BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg created a storm when she casually threw details into a video call on the Politics Live programme details of what she claimed she had been told about the results of postal votes:
This was a problem on at least two counts. Electoral law forbids the counting of postal votes before polling stations close on election day. It similarly forbids any reporting of indication about how postal votes might be going, as either might influence the turnout or votes of those casting their ballots on polling day itself.
In spite of widespread outrage, the BBC at first hesitated to comment on the breach – and then when it did, the broadcaster said it didn’t think either it or Ms Kuenssberg had breached electoral law.
But it seemed that the BBC was not as confident of this as it claimed. While such BBC broadcasts are normally available on the Corporation’s ‘iPlayer’ catch-up service within an hour or two of their live transmission, the 11 December episode is still missing today:
And the BBC is refusing to explain why this programme, of all its December episodes, missing.
The SKWAWKBOX contacted the BBC’s Domestic Current Affairs press office to ask for an explanation of the absence. When no response had been received an hour after deadline a follow-up call was made and a spokesperson said:
We’ll be declining to comment on that.
Since the election, Royal Mail workers have claimed to have seen ‘huge’ racks of postal votes standing undelivered on polling day in at least one major sorting office, while two of the companies contracted to run the postal vote process were dissolved shortly after the count.
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