Tory fury over biased Beeb’s coverage
MINIStERS are urging theresa May to give the BBC a ‘good going over’ after the election for biased coverage of the Conservative campaign.
Senior tories are furious at the Corporation’s coverage of the election, claiming it has been characterised by relentless pro-Labour bias.
a senior tory source said: ‘the BBC coverage has been ridiculous. they have consistently failed to challenge Corbyn and have run Labour re-announcements with glee.’
Feelings came to a head last week over claims of audience bias in the prime-time tV debate in which home Secretary amber Rudd was heckled and jeered while Jeremy Corbyn was cheered to the rafters.
the coverage prompted a formal complaint to BBC director-general Lord hall from the Prime Minister’s joint chief-of-staff Fiona hill.
a Cabinet minister said: ‘I would love the BBC to start demonstrating some impartiality but we haven’t seen it during this campaign.
‘the bias in the audience for the tV debate was horrifying – amber should not have had to put up with that. the BBC need a really good going over after the election – they are just not impartial.’ a BBC source last night insisted that the debate was the only occasion during the campaign when the Conservatives have lodged a formal complaint.
But tory concern about the BBC’s election coverage goes much wider. Senior figures accuse the Corporation of adopting Labour’s ‘dementia tax’ rhetoric when discussing the party’s controversial social care concerns.
they have been infuriated by the focus on police cuts in the wake of the London Bridge attack, which has continued despite the insistence of former terror tsar Lord Carlile that the argument is ‘completely misleading’.
they have also been irritated by the lack of attention to Jeremy Corbyn’s long history of opposing anti-terror laws. Yesterday, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson was repeatedly interrupted by presenter Mishal husain when he tried to raise the issue of Mr Corbyn’s past sympathy for terrorist groups during an interview on Radio Four’s today programme.
tory sources also believe the BBC has paid undue attention to polls suggesting the tory lead is collapsing in a bid to undermine Mrs May’s campaign. and they claim that tory policy announcements, such as yesterday’s pledge to revive the Board of trade to exploit Brexit, have received scant coverage.
another senior tory said: ‘Everyone is massively f ***** d off with the BBC. It’s not just the debate, it’s the whole tenor of their coverage.’
In a statement last night, the BBC defended itself, saying: ‘Our coverage of all political parties during the election campaign has been fair, and we rigorously scrutinise the issues on behalf of the public so that our audiences have clear and impartial information about the issues that matter to them.’ the BBC hired polling company, ComRes, ‘to recruit a [studio debate] audience that is representative of the country demographically and politically’.