Inner workings of leader’s team revealed in Corbyn documentary

The inner workings of Jeremy Corbyn’s office have been revealed with the release of a new documentary today. The film-makers were offered unprecedented access to the Labour leader, which includes interviews with him and his staff.

It shows Corbyn on the campaign trail ahead of last month’s elections, and covers the level of his popularity with Labour Party activists.

The documentary was made for the VICE News website, and the decision to grant such access to that platform gives an insight into how the leadership hopes to sidestep the more traditional ways of broadcasting their message to voters.

The half-hour video also reveals a deep-seated frustration within the leader’s office of media coverage Corbyn receives – a frustration Corbyn clearly shares.

The Labour leader criticises “supposedly well-informed major commentators” for being “shallow, facile and ill-informed” and trying to “shape a debate that is baseless and narrow.”

The general unhappiness comes largely with liberal media outlets rather than more overtly hostile bodies.

In a conversation with Director of Communications and Strategy Seumas Milne, Corbyn describes a piece about anti-Semitism on the left as “utterly disgusting subliminal nastiness”, and accuses its author, The Guardian’s Jonathan Freedland, of being “obsessed with me”. He also criticises the BBC for “spinning” stories against him.

“There is not one story on any election anywhere in the UK that the BBC will not spin into a problem for me,” Corbyn says. “They are obsessed with trying to damage the leadership of the Labour Party and unfortunately there are people in the Labour Party who play into that.”

It is not the first time the leader’s office has gone head-to-head with the BBC over its political coverage. In January, an official complaint was lodged over the on-air resignation of Stephen Doughty, while last month tens of thousands of people signed a petition calling for BBC Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg to be sacked over her reporting.