BBC presenter SKEWERS 'Corbyn CHEERLEADER' Owen Jones following Labour election 'stumble'

Mrs Maitlis mocked left-wing columnist Owen Jones by referring to him as “one of Jeremy Corbyn’s noisiest cheerleaders”.

The host asked the Momentum supporter “are you happy tonight?” following the local election results.

Mr Jones said: ”Let’s just remember where we were a year ago.

“We were talking about the electoral extermination of the Labour Party after the local election when Labour got 27 per cent.

“Four weeks later they got 40 per cent and deprived the Tories of a majority.

“This time around according to the BBC’s own predictions, Labour would be heading seats in parliament which shows that last year wasn’t a fluke.

“In London Labour has seen its best result since 1971.”

Mrs Maitlis then piled the pressure on Mr Jones, saying: “So you’re not exterminated but you should be in an incredibly strong position against Theresa May’s government.”

Mr Jones then scrambled to respond under scrutiny from the host.

Mr Jones said: “London, this was a Tory city until recently.

“It had a Conservative Mayor.

“In 1992 London would have been more likely to vote Tory than the rest of the country.

“You saw as well in Trafford where Momentum campaigned exceptionally hard.”

Following Mr Jones’ reply, the BBC host then continued to question Labour’s disappointing election.

Mrs Maitlis declared: “Labour should be knocking the Conservatives over with a feather right now.”

The columnist replied: “I think if you look back to those local elections last year, what you saw was Labour going from 27 per cent in four weeks to a General Election and getting the biggest vote surge of Labour since 1945.”

Fellow pundit and Times columnist Phil Collins then slammed Mr Jones’ answer, saying: “Owen is threading the thin line between commentary and activism; but not very plausibly, unfortunately.”

To which Mr Jones gingerly responded with “I love you too Phil.”