JK Rowling compares Brexit '˜media bias' claims to Yes campaign

JK Rowling has taken to Twitter to blast a prominent Leave politician who complained of biased Brexit coverage, comparing them to Yes campaigners.

Harry Potter author JK Rowling. Picture: PA

The Harry Potter author was responding to Labour MP and Leave campaigner Kate Hoey after she criticised BBC Newsnight for ‘undermining our country’.

Ms Hoey wrote: “Does anyone else think that @BBCNewsnight and @EvanHD seem to delight in undermining our country in EU negotiations #embitteredremainers”

Rowling retweeted the MP’s original post, quoting what was inferred to be Leave voters’ comments, including “They need us more” and “We’ll be rich.”

She then went on to compare the tactics of ‘Brexiteers’ to Yes campaigners in the Scottish independence referendum in another tweet.

“Watching Brexiteers who opposed Scottish independence now duplicating every play in the Yessers’ book just proves Orwell right, yet again,” she said.

She then quoted author George Orwell himself: “‘All nationalists have the power of not seeing resemblances between similar sets of facts.’”

It is not Ms Rowling’s first foray into politics on Twitter.

The children’s author was the target of online abuse because of her pro-Union stance in the independence referendum campaign.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was forced to intervene in 2015 after Cybernat trolls directed abuse at her and Scottish writer Muriel Gray after Scotland’s last minute defeat to Australia in the Rugby World Cup.

In a tweet, Ms Sturgeon said: “Note to my fellow independence supporters. People who disagree are not anti-Scottish. Does our cause no good to hurl abuse (& it’s wrong).”

Rowling issued an apology in August after wrongly accusing US President Donald Trump on Twitter of refusing to shake a disabled child’s hand at the White House.