Tories go to war with BBC
ANGER AT BIAS ON BBC TV DEBATE From yesterday’s Daily Mail
THE Tories were at war with the BBC over Left-wing bias last night as Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn prepared for a crunch debate on Question Time this evening.
Conservative central office lodged a complaint with the corporation yesterday over the treatment of Home Secretary Amber Rudd by a TV audience described as ‘the most Left-wing ever’.
The Tories are demanding that the BBC review its rules for audience selection for tonight’s Question Time debate in which the Conservative and Labour leaders will both field questions from the public. A senior Tory source described the mood as furious, saying: ‘The BBC have got to sort this out fast – it is just not acceptable to have such an obviously biased audience.’
Boris Johnson also expressed concerns about Wednesday night’s debate in which Miss Rudd took on Mr Corbyn and senior figures from five other parties.
The Foreign Secretary said the audience was ‘probably the most Left-wing the BBC has ever brought together’, with Labour supporters joined by ‘all the supporters of Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats and the Scots Nats – when you put them together you had this incredible echo chamber for all sorts of Leftwing nonsense’.
Miss Rudd was heckled and subjected to mocking laughter for defending government policy while Mr Corbyn was repeatedly cheered during the debate, which was watched by 3.6million viewers. Mrs May’s joint chief-of-staff Fiona Hill is understood to have ordered a formal complaint to BBC director general Lord Hall about the debate, demanding that there is no repeat of the bias in tonight’s TV audience.
Tory candidate Peter Bone said the BBC needed a major shake-up after the election.
‘Any fair-minded person watching that debate would conclude that it was biased against the Conservatives to a remarkable degree,’ he added. ‘If it was meant to be balanced, then somewhere in the selection process someone has made a serious slip.
‘They have to do better tonight or the programme will be another farce. The party is absolutely right to object.’
But despite the concern, the BBC said it would be using similar methods to select tonight’s audience. Question Time producers will ensure the audience has roughly the same number of Conservative and Labour supporters, despite the fact that the Tories have more backing in the polls.
Seats will also be offered to those who support the minority parties or are ‘undecided’. Most of these minority parties are Left-wing, so the overall audience will be skewed to the Left.
The BBC said: ‘The Question Time Leaders Special… is a very different programme from the Election Debate, with only one party leader on stage at a time.
‘The majority of the audience will be Labour or Conservative, meaning the party leaders will have an equal number of their supporters within the audience.
‘The Question Time team are very experienced at bringing audiences together and we are confident it will be fair and balanced.’