BBC Makerfield fake news row over Miliband’s purge on tumble dryers
THE BBC has been branded a Labour mouthpiece after a guest went unchecked when dismissing a report revealing Ed Miliband’s crackdown on tumble dryers.
Theo Bertram, of the Social Market Foundation, described as fake a story reporting that the sale of traditional tumble dryers was being phased out.
The Telegraph revealed in April that Mr Miliband was introducing the ban to bring Britain in line with net-zero rules adopted by the EU.
Richard Tice, the deputy leader of Reform UK, said the BBC’S failure to challenge Mr Bertram’s claim was an example of biased news coverage.
“Mad Miliband’s net-zero push explicitly calls for the ‘phasing out’ of household tumble dryers and replacing them with more expensive alternatives,” Mr Tice said. “It’s no surprise the BBC failed to challenge a former Labour special adviser on that fact.
“Labour’s mouthpieces are so embarrassed by their own policies that they’re now trying to deny proposals set out in black and white. And Brits being forced to fund biased news coverage is something you’d expect from the Chinese Communist Party, not a democratic nation.” The Telegraph revealed in April that new rules would mean only “efficient” heat-pump dryers were available.
Yet on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme yesterday, Mr Bertram, a special adviser to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, cited the story as an example of misinformation before this week’s Makerfield by-election targeting Labour.
The think-tank director had said that the proportion of fake news content in the Greater Manchester constituency had risen from 4 per cent to 18 per cent since the by-election was announced.
He told the Today programme: “What we found in Makerfield was that it’s largely aimed at Andy Burnham and Labour, or it’s pro-reform, it’s of a different nature in that constituency.”
Asked to provide examples, he said: “Ed Miliband wants to ban tumble dryers, which may sound funny, but it widely seems to be believed in those groups.” The Telegraph reported that the phasing out of condenser tumble dryers was spelled out in a paper published on the Department for Energy security and Net Zero’s website.
It stated: “We propose introducing an SI (statutory instrument) that would effectively phase out the sale of more inefficient gas-fired, air-vented, and condenser household tumble dryers.
“These changes would raise the minimum energy performance standards and ensure that only efficient heat pump household tumble dryers remain available for purchase.”
The BBC also failed to inform its listeners of Mr Bertram’s deep ties to the Labour Party – he was a regional organiser for the party, too – and did not present another interviewee for balance.
Mr Bertram also told the BBC that social media platforms needed to do more to tackle misinformation brought on by the fall in reliance on newspapers.
A BBC spokesman said: “Our contributor appeared in his capacity as director of the Social Market Foundation. He talked about their research on election misinformation, including the claim tumble dryers will be banned completely, which is not the case.”
Mr Bertram was asked to comment.