'It's Not Okay At All': BBC Mistakes Labour's Marsha De Cordova For Dawn Butler

"Diversity in the workplace matters and it also helps to avoid making simple mistakes like this."
The BBC confused Labour MPs Marsha de Cordova and Dawn Butler on its Parliament channel
The BBC confused Labour MPs Marsha de Cordova and Dawn Butler on its Parliament channel
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Labour MPs Dawn Butler and Marsha de Cordova have criticised the BBC after the broadcaster confused the pair on its Parliament channel.

During a debate in the Commons about the agriculture bill on Monday, the BBC mislabelled de Cordova – Labour’s shadow minister for disabled people – as Butler, who is running to become the party’s next deputy leader.

Tweeting a photo of the mistake, Butler wrote: “I love my sister @MarshadeCordova but we are two different people.

.@BBCNews @BBCPolitics I love my sister @MarshadeCordova but we are two different people. Marsha is amazing and deserves to be called by her own name. Diversity in the workplace matters it also helps to avoid making simple mistakes like this. pic.twitter.com/pXyrGKJ4hZ

— (((Dawn Butler))) (@DawnButlerBrent) February 3, 2020

“Marsha is amazing and deserves to be called by her own name. Diversity in the workplace matters and it also helps to avoid making simple mistakes like this.”

Meanwhile, de Cordova said the BBC had not yet apologised for the mistake. “It’s not okay at all,” she said.

Journalist Gary Younge – who has written about being mistaken for Tottenham MP David Lammy – tweeted: “For the love of God. These aren’t any old mistakes – they are the same old mistakes.

“It’s not as if there are so many non-white MPs, candidates and knights of the realm that they cannot keep it straight.”

In a statement, the BBC “sincerely apologised” for the mistake.

“Sometimes we incorrectly identify MPs at the moment when they stand to speak. This error was immediately corrected on screen.”

The BBC’s mistake comes less than two weeks after it featured a clip of LeBron James during a report about the death of basketball legend Kobe Bryant – a mistake the broadcaster blamed on “human error”.

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