In January 2017 the
BBC Trust ruled that a report in November 2015 by Kuenssberg broke the broadcaster's impartiality and accuracy guidelines. A viewer had complained about her item, which featured an interview with Corbyn on the
BBC News at Six which gave the incorrect impression that Corbyn disagreed with the use of firearms by police in incidents such as that
month's terrorist attacks in Paris. His purported answer to a question as broadcast in the report was in fact his reply to a more general question (not broadcast), and not specifically about that terrorist attack.
[33] The BBC Trust said that the inaccuracy was "compounded" when Kuenssberg went on to state that Corbyn's message "couldn't be more different" from that of May, who was about to publish anti-terrorism proposals. The trust said that accuracy was particularly important when dealing "with a critical question at a time of extreme national concern."
[33] Nevertheless, the BBC Trust found no evidence that there had been any intention to mislead, and their ruling was that the footage "had been compiled in good faith."
[34] The Daily Telegraph published a story about Kuenssberg in 2017 with the headline "the most divisive woman on TV today?" printed on the front-page.
[3][35]
In September 2019 Kuenssberg received criticism for her portrayal of Omar Salem, a father who confronted the prime minister,
Boris Johnson, about the government's treatment of the
NHS, as "a Labour activist."
[36] Salem defended Kuenssberg, saying that she was doing her job "without fear or favour which is a vital part of democracy. I don't think 'Labour activist cares about NHS' is a huge scoop though...".
[37]
On 11 December 2019, the day before the General Election, she drew controversy by claiming on air that submitted postal votes, apparently viewed by both the
Labour Party and the
Conservative Party, were "looking pretty grim for Labour in a lot of parts of the country".
[38][39] Viewing postal votes prior to polling day is in breach of guidelines set by the
Electoral Commission[40] and predicting electoral outcomes based on votes cast prior to polls closing may be a criminal offence.
[41][42] The footage was subsequently withdrawn from
BBC iPlayer, while the episode of
Politics Live in which the incident happened was withdrawn and removed from the
BBC Parliament schedule.
[43] The BBC News press office tweeted: "Regarding today's
Politics Live programme, the BBC does not believe it, or its political editor, has breached electoral law."
[44] The
Metropolitan Police later confirmed that there was "no evidence of any criminal offences having been committed."
[45]
Kuenssberg was criticised, alongside other major journalists, for incorrectly tweeting that a Labour activist had punched a Conservative Party advisor, without verification; footage was released showing this was untrue and she later apologised and retracted her tweet.
[46] On 3 March 2020, however, the BBC's Executive Complaints Unit stated that "It found no evidence of political bias nor that Laura Kuenssberg had failed to check the story before publication." In her apology, Kuenssberg noted that two sources had told her the story was true, and she hence decided to publish it.
[47]
In May 2020, as the
Dominic Cummings scandal broke, Kuenssberg tweeted several statements from an anonymous source close to Cummings about the nature of his trip. In one tweet, she contradicted
Pippa Crerar, one of the journalists who broke the story, with information from a "source" which argued that the trip was not illegal. Many suspected that the anonymous source was Cummings himself, which led to allegations that Kuenssberg was defending, or at least uncritically repeating, his side of the story. This led to a significant volume of complaints to the BBC, who defended Kuenssberg's actions.
[48][49] In May 2021, Dominic Cummings confirmed to a Parliamentary committee that he "set the record straight" with briefings to Kuenssberg.
[50]