[Luc]

Well she didn't make it up, she wasn't the only person in the mainstream media who repeated the claims, though that reflects badly on everyone who repeated it rather than excuses Laura. These seasoned journalists should stick to reporting facts, not social media tittle tattle from unnamed and questionable sources, leave that to the tabloids.

The BBC website live feed also repeated a claim that Labour had already conceded the WM mayor race on Friday morning (again, before any votes had been counted, or even verified), which wasn't any better. But that seemed to go largely unnoticed comapred to Laura's tweet.

So when she said 'it's clear tonight that the race is much closer than some polls had suggested....' where precisely did she get the sourced, verified info to publish this claim on her BBC branded social media feed? No other political editor or senior presenter posted this, unless I've missed this? Incidentally Sadiq Khan won by 10 points, so her post was straight up wrong.
This is not the first time she has jumped on gossip in an attempt to be 'first' and she cannot be compared to a BBC website live blogger by virtue of her seniority and position. I've not one of those who seemingly jumps on everything she does but...she's literally paid (a huge amount) to presumably be circumspect and authoritative.