BBC apology for calling Reform ‘far Right’
THE BBC has apologised to Reform UK after calling the party “far-right” in an online news report.
The broadcaster made the claim during a story about the Liberal Democrat spring conference in which it referred to Reform surging ahead of Sir Ed Davey’s party in the opinion polls.
Although Reform is to the Right of the Conservative Party on issues including immigration and the tax burden, it has previously said its aims are not motivated by political ideology.
In a statement on Monday, the BBC said: “In an article about the Liberal Democrats’ spring conference, we wrongly described the political party Reform UK as far-right when referring to polling. This sentence was subsequently removed from the article as it fell short of our usual editorial standards. While the original wording was based on news agency copy, we take full responsibility and apologise for the error.”
Richard Tice, the leader of Reform, told The Telegraph that while he was “pleased” the BBC had apologised, the error “shouldn’t have happened in the first place”. He added: “This is a tactic that certain news organisations are going to try, which is to smear and label not only the party but by direct implication myself and other senior figures.”
He argued that the BBC was “terrified of how successful we are corporation of acting in its own “vested interests”.
“They should be under no illusion that whilst you can’t libel a political party, there is a direct link to the leader and you can libel me and I won’t tolerate it. Anyone else who wants to try this, good luck and I look forward to seeing you in court.” In a separate statement, Mr Tice said his lawyers are also in touch “with other organisations who repeated the BBC line”.
He said he viewed the claim that Reform was a “far-right” political party as both “defamatory and libellous”.
Reform has promised to ditch the BBC licence fee, which currently stands at £159 per year – rising to £169.50, next month. The pre-election manifesto unveiled by Reform at its spring conference reads: “The TV licence is taxation without representation.”