Boris blasts BBC for ‘biased election audience of Lefties’

FOREIGN Secretary Boris Johnson blasted the BBC yesterday for putting together “the most Left-wing audience ever” for a crunch TV election debate.

Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage said BBC executives should be sacked.

Even the independent pollster hired by the corporation to pick a “balanced audience” to put the questions admitted Tory Amber Rudd and Ukip leader Paul Nuttall probably came up against noisier opposition than their fellow panellists.

The row followed Wednesday night’s BBC election clash from Cambridge featuring Home Secretary Ms Rudd, Mr Nuttall and senior figures from Labour, the Lib Dems, Greens, the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru.

Ms Rudd had to fend off rivals’ attacks on PM Theresa May for not turning up and audience members laughed when she urged voters to “judge us on our record” on public finances.

Angus Robertson, the SNP’s leader at Westminster, was cheered when he attacked the Tory record on welfare and Ms Rudd was jeered whenever she insisted her party always protected the most vulnerable. Anyone who backed scrapping the nuclear deterrent also drew loud cheers.

Mr Johnson strongly defended “heroic” Ms Rudd who once branded him “untrustworthy”. She took part despite losing her father two days before. He said on ITV: “It was seven people speaking to probably the most Left-wing studio audience the BBC has ever brought together. It was all the supporters of Plaid Cymru, the Liberal Democrats, the Scots Nats – when you put them together you had this echo chamber for all sorts of Left-wing nonsense.”

Later he said: “It was a yammering cacophony of views, many Left-wing.”