BBC ‘wanted gay group to take on Forbes’

THE BBC has been accused of disinviting a gay group from a programme because it refused to attack Kate Forbes, the under-fire SNP leadership hopeful.

The LGB Alliance (LGBA) was approached on Friday by BBC One’s Sunday Morning Live to debate whether “traditional Christian views are incompatable with modern politics” on a panel as Ms Forbes’s views on same-sex marriage have come to the fore.

When a producer canvassed their opinion, the group of lesbian, gay and bisexual people said they “completely reject her views” but insisted “we have freedom of religion” and religious beliefs are protected under the 2010 Equality Act.

Shortly after that phone call, the BBC producer sent an email, seen by The Daily Telegraph, saying they had “decided to go in a different direction with the debate, and we’ll no longer be requiring Kate [Harris, co-founder of LGBA] on Sunday”.

Instead, the BBC invited Natasha Devon, a bisexual campaigner, who argued Ms Forbes’s views should rule her out from replacing Nicola Sturgeon as Scotland’s next First Minister, during the show which aired yesterday.

Bev Jackson, the co-founder of LGB Alliance, said the row showed how the BBC “wanted a specific narrative”.

She said: “Producers have the right to make the programme their own, but if you always only present these TQ+ people, who are very aggressive and uncompromising, it gives the public a very bad impression of gay people.

“It looks to me as if what they wanted is a gay organisation to come on and join the attack on her and say ‘you cant have those views.”

A BBC spokesman said: “Our programme makers have conversations with a range of potential contributors ahead of a show, but that doesn’t guarantee they will feature, and unfortunately we can’t include them all. We don’t ban voices or organisations.”