BBC in row as Radio 4 host calls Chancellor a ‘fiscal drag queen’ big Budget losers’
THe bbC found itself at the centre of another political bias row last night after a presenter called the Chancellor a ‘fiscal drag queen’.
Amol rajan made the jibe as he interviewed Jeremy Hunt about Wednesday’s budget on radio 4’s Today programme.
but mr Hunt described mr rajan’s characterisation as ‘not worthy of the bbC’. Their clash comes weeks after frontbenchers raised concerns about the broadcaster’s impartiality.
Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer claimed ‘ some audiences think it’s biased’, Tory chairman richard Holden said its coverage was skewed by the ‘liberal establishment’ viewpoint of its staff, and Transport minister Huw merriman said The News Quiz on radio 4 was just a ‘diatribe against Conservatives’.
The latest bust-up came as mr rajan – who also presents University Challenge and was paid up to £339,999 last year by licence fee payers – challenged mr Hunt about more taxpayers ‘dragged’ into paying tax. referring to a nickname coined by the Financial Times yesterday, mr rajan asked mr Hunt: ‘They call you the fiscal drag queen of british politics, don’t they?’ mr Hunt replied: ‘I don’t think I’ve been called a drag queen before by the way, Amol.’ The presenter clarified: ‘It was a fiscal drag queen, fiscal drag queen, certainly not my phrase but it might be apposite.’ He continued: ‘This is a country ravaged by economic shocks, at best drifting, at worse, stagnant. We all know about its potential, but we’ve had seven quarters of falling GDP per head, that’s been revised downwards. We’re hooked on foreign labour, the birth rate is collapsing. many public services are creaking, councils are going bust. Those are facts, has your budget really come even close to meeting the scale of the challenges this country faces?’
mr Hunt insisted his long-term plan would help, adding: ‘I think the overall characterisation that you’ve just given of the british economy is unworthy of the bbC.’ At this, mr rajan scoffed: ‘ The bbC is an organisation of tens of thousands of people doing lots of different things, there is no such thing as “the bbC”.’
The Chancellor interjected: ‘You’ve accused me of being a Soviet and a drag queen.’
before joining the bbC in 2016, mr rajan edited the left-leaning Independent. After presenting a controversial bbC documentary about the royals in 2021, he was forced to apologise for previous comments he had made about them, including calling Prince Philip a ‘racist buffoon’. The bbC last night declined to comment.