NOW BBC COMIC MOCKS LIZ TRUSS
After Have I Got News For You c-word jibe at PM, corporation’s new flagship politics show sparks fresh anti-Tory bias storm
THE BBC was accused of antiTory bias again last night after a comedian mocked Liz Truss on its top politics show.
On the eve of her expected election as party leader and prime minister, Miss Truss appeared on Laura Kuenssberg’s new Sunday show to talk about her plans to tackle the cost of living crisis.
But the interview was overshadowed by Joe Lycett who sarcastically applauded and cheered her, before ridiculing her promises to help families with energy bills. A senior Tory source called for the BBC to apologise, saying the show had been ‘absurd’.
The controversy came after Miss Truss and Boris Johnson were subjected to a series of crass insults on the BBC’s Have I Got News for You programme on Friday night.
The two incidents show the scale of the task facing Deborah Turness as the corporation’s
new chief executive of news and current affairs. The former ITN boss has orders to make impartiality a priority.
Today Miss Truss is widely expected to be confirmed as the winner of the contest to succeed Mr Johnson. The result will be announced at 12.30pm before the winner heads to see the Queen in Balmoral tomorrow to be confirmed as prime minister.
She told the Daily Mail it was time to ‘stop talking Britain down’ and promised tax cuts within a month and an energy bills plan within a week. The BBC row came as:
■ The PM-in-waiting admitted she faced a ‘difficult’ in-tray but warned against predictions of a ‘sort of Armageddon scenario’;
■ She pointedly did not dismiss the idea of freezing energy bills at a potential mammoth cost of £100billion;
■ Mr Johnson’s former chief- of- staff Lord Udny-Lister said the Prime Minister could yet make a comeback;
■ Rishi Sunak did not rule out returning to California at some point if he loses the leadership contest, as expected.
Laura Kuenssberg’s interview with Miss Truss was meant to be the highlight of her debut Sunday show, which has seen her become the permanent replacement for Andrew Marr in that slot.
As the Foreign Secretary made her way off set following a 20-minute grilling, Lycett whooped and cheered, shouting ‘ fantastic, Liz’ before going on to sarcastically claim he was ‘actually very Right-wing and I loved it’.
He mockingly said her answers left him ‘reassured’ before going on to claim ‘haters’ would say the Tories were ‘ at the dregs of what they’ve got available’ and that Truss was the ‘backwash of the available MPs’. His comments went unchallenged by Miss Kuenssberg or others on the panel.
Lycett was flanked by Labour frontbencher Emily Thornberry and former Downing Street aide Cleo Watson.
Miss Thornberry was said by Miss Kuenssberg to be ‘ smirking in the corner’ at the comedian’s behaviour.
Lycett, 34, had telegraphed his feelings on Twitter the previous night, saying he was ‘really excited to be on this new version of Would I Lie To You’.
The BBC’s decision to invite him on to the first episode of the important new show, sparked consternation and bemusement last night.
A senior Tory party source said: ‘ That’s supposed to be a serious political programme. I think it made Laura Kuenssberg look stupid ... I think it is absurd.
‘How could that possibly be the right thing for the BBC to do. If I was the BBC I would issue an apology and say we got it wrong, we made a mistake and we will go back to being a serious political programme.’
Rob Burley, a former BBC editor of live political programmes, said: ‘Memo: Don’t put comedians on Question Time or any other serious political show. It’s not the time for that nonsense any more.’ BBC director-general Tim Davie is set to be grilled over the slurs when he faces the Commons culture committee this week.
Yesterday’s Mail on Sunday told how Have I Got News For You dedicated its entire half hour on Friday to belittling the outgoing PM, including the use of the c-word.
Tory backbencher Lee Anderson, who last year said he ripped up his TV licence in protest at the BBC’s Princess Diana scandal, said: ‘Leopards do not change their spots, and it would appear that now the BBC can no longer use public money to attack Boris they have now turned their sights on to Liz Truss.’
Former minister Sir John Hayes said: ‘I’ve been a reluctant advocate of defunding the BBC, hoping it would return to what it was, but it seems those days are gone. It is so nakedly biased now.’
However Lycett drew praise on Twitter, including from fellow comic Nish Kumar, writer Jay Rayner and Labour MP Jess Phillips.
Senior sources at the BBC’s news division defended the new show saying the programme needed ‘levity’ and there would be ‘people of all views over time’.
They added: ‘It’s important that impartiality isn’t seen as balance in one show. That’s not the objective now and never was. You show me a launch programme that gets every tiny detail right on day one.’