‘We’re not making it up’: UK political chaos is not media’s fault, say journalists

Sky's political editor, Beth Rigby, interviewing Keir Starmer before the 2024 general election. Rigby said the criticisms felt unfair, adding: ‘I don’t see it as a game.’ Photograph: Getty Images View image in fullscreen Sky's political editor, Beth Rigby, interviewing Keir Starmer before the 2024 general election. Rigby said the criticisms felt unfair, adding: ‘I don’t see it as a game.’ Photograph: Getty Images ‘We’re not making it up’: UK political chaos is not media’s fault, say journalists High-profile reporters reject accusations of revelling in drama, saying politicians are the people ‘addicted to crisis’ Politicians, not reporters, are responsible for driving a decade of chaos in Westminster, prominent political editors have said, after accusations that the media have become addicted to political crises. Britain could yet appoint its seventh prime minister since the Brexit vote 10 years ago, after the turmoil that has engulfed Keir Starmer’s leadership since Labour’s May election results. It has led to accusations that political reporting has become obsessed with infighting and chaos, treating the coverage of politics as a form of social media entertainment. However, journalists told the Guardian that the claims were misguided, pointing to the need to cover the very real infighting that has plagued Westminster. Beth Rigby, Sky’s political editor since 2019, said: “When I see those criticisms, it stings a bit actually, because that’s just not my experience of what I’m trying to do and how I try to cover it. When you’re at the coalface, I’ve felt it’s unfair. “I don’t see it as a game. It’s not entertainment. What we’re doing, what’s going on in the country and the leadership crisis, is really serious. It weighs on me.” Her view was echoed by Robert Peston , ITV News’s political editor since 2016. “The idea that in some way I, or people like me, revel in this is just not right,” he said. “What we try to do is just tell viewers or readers what on earth is going on. “The people who are addicted to crisis are not the journalists. It’s the players in the political game.” View image in fullscreen Peston said he tried to ‘give voters the information that they need about what the hell is going on’. Photograph: Shutterstock Some journalists have backed the accusation that political reporting revels in chaos. Nick Bryant, a former BBC US correspondent, has argued politics has become a form of “journalistic entertainment”. “We, as journalists, are a big part of the problem,” he wrote on Substack . Tom Baldwin, the author of Keir Starmer, The Biography, has said reporters should “have a good look at themselves about the way they’ve behaved” in recent weeks. One veteran political journalist said structural factors were also at play. While social media had sped up the news cycle, he said the sheer volume of outlets – as well as the ease with which MPs could now be reached via WhatsApp – had made it impossible for parties to control the narrative. “Hacks