Corbyn's leadership success: The Times does not let facts disrupt its dodgy leader

Letter to The Times:

By definition leading articles are articulations of the considered opinion of the newspaper's leader writers. They differ from news reports, in that they add interpretation of information.

However, in order to do so credibly, they do need to be based on accurate facts. Your leader, "No confidence in Corbyn" (July 1; http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/comment/no-confidence-in-corbyn-cct6873t9), failed on this account.

It asserts M Corbyn became leader  last September not through merit, but owing to a historical accident" which the leader identifies as "The perennial backbench rebel was the beneficiary of new rules allowing anyone to vote in a Labour leadership election who signed a statement of aims and paid a fee of £3."

The Labour leadership election result was as follows:

This shows that Mr Corbyn won handsomely on all three categories of eligible voter: Labour party members 49.59%; registered supporters ie £3 fee payers: 83.76%; and affiliated supporters ( eg trades unions, socialist societies) 57.61%. by comparison, all of his competitors, former ministers Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall had miserably small percentages eg of full party members, 22.69%, 22.18% and 5.54% respectively.

Your leader concludes Mr Corbyn is a "loser". The  demonstrable facts are that among  all parts of the wider Labour movement, he is a significant winner, especially over candidates expressing the ideas now being espoused by Angela Eagle ( who finished fourth in the Labour Party deputy leadership  election at the same time last year).

But don't let the facts get in the way of a  distorted narrative in your leading article.

First round

Candidate		Party members		Registered supporters		Affiliated supporters		Total
		Votes	%	Votes	%	Votes	%	Votes		%
	Jeremy Corbyn Y	121,751	49.59%	88,449	83.76%	41,217	57.61%	251,417		59.5%
	Andy Burnham	55,698	22.69%	6,160	5.83%	18,604	26.00%	80,462		19.0%
	Yvette Cooper	54,470	22.18%	8,415	7.97%	9,043	12.64%	71,928		17.0%
	Liz Kendall	13,601	5.54%	2,574	2.44%	2,682	3.75%	18,857		4.5%