We are not biased against Brexit, BBC’s news boss tells angry MPs
THE BBC’s news chief refused to accept complaints of anti-Brexit bias during showdown talks with Eurosceptic MPs, it was claimed last night.
A cross-party group of pro-Leave politicians met James Harding to complain about distorted coverage.
But the BBC’s director of news rejected the claims outright and dismissed their concerns, the MPs said.
One of the politicians at the meeting told the Mail: ‘It was a complete and utter waste of time. If you listen to James Harding, the BBC’s coverage is perfect. They don’t accept there’s a problem.
‘Their coverage is unquestionably biased. We just asked them to be even-handed, as we don’t think they are being.’
Another of those who attended the meeting said that the BBC’s response had been ‘really unsatisfactory’. The summit, held at BBC offices in London on Tuesday, was attended by a group of pro-Leave MPs from Labour, the Conservatives and other parties.
The delegation included Labour’s Kate Hoey and Kelvin Hopkins, Conservatives Philip Davies, Philip Hollobone and Julian Knight, and Ian Paisley Jnr from the DUP.
The MPs presented an analysis of shows on BBC Radio 4 last year, which found listeners were two-and-a-half times more likely to hear a pro-EU speaker than an anti-EU one.
The politicians are now seeking a new code of practice or guidelines to ensure impartiality in the BBC’s coverage during Brexit talks.
The analysis carried out by the News-Watch pressure group – which the Corporation disputes – examined the business news on Radio 4’s flagship Today programme for the six months after the referendum.
It found that more than half of the 366 speakers had been negative about the impact of the vote to leave the EU, while only 16 per cent expressed pro-Brexit views.
Supporters of Leave say that stricter rules in force during the referendum campaign forced the BBC to show true impartiality, and praised the broadcaster’s coverage in the run-up to the vote in June last year.
But many argue that since then the Corporation has been too negative about Britain’s prospects outside the EU.
In January, the Victoria Derbyshire Show visited Great Yarmouth, which voted heavily for Leave – but everyone they interviewed expressed doubts. In October, MPs said shows were ‘heavily biased’ against Leavers.
Comment – Page 14