The BBC has apologised to Reform UK after calling it “far-Right” in a news report.
The broadcaster made the claim during a report about the Liberal Democrat spring conference in which it referred to Reform surging ahead of Sir Ed Davey’s party in the opinion polls.
Although Reform is to the right of the Conservative Party on issues including legal and illegal immigration and the tax burden, it has previously said its political aims are not motivated by political ideology.
In a statement on Monday, the BBC said: “In an article about the Liberal Democrats’ spring conference, we wrongly described the political party Reform UK as far-Right when referring to polling.
“This sentence was subsequently removed from the article as it fell short of our usual editorial standards. While the original wording was based on news agency copy, we take full responsibility and apologise for the error.”
**‘Vested interests’**
Richard Tice, the leader of Reform, told The Telegraph that while he was “pleased” the BBC had apologised, the error “shouldn’t have happened in the first place”.
“This is a tactic that certain news organisations are going to try, which is to smear and label not only the party but by direct implication myself and other senior figures,” he said.
He argued that the BBC was “terrified of how successful we are becoming” and accused the broadcaster of acting in its own “vested interests”.
“They should be under no illusion that whilst you can’t libel a political party, there is a direct link to the leader and you can libel me and I won’t tolerate it. Anyone else who wants to try this, good luck and I look forward to seeing you in court.”
In a separate statement, Mr Tice said his lawyers are also in touch “with other organisations who repeated the BBC line”.
He added that he viewed the claim that Reform was a “far-Right” political party as both “defamatory and libellous”.
Reform has promised to ditch the BBC licence fee, which currently stands at £159 per year but will increase by £10.50, a rise of 6.6 per cent, in April.
The pre-election manifesto unveiled by Reform at its spring conference last month reads: “The out-of-touch, wasteful BBC is institutionally biased. The TV licence is taxation without representation. In a world of on-demand TV, people should be free to choose.”
**‘Biased’**
Mr Tice, a presenter on GB News, has regularly railed against the BBC and claimed it is “biased” against figures on the Right, calling for its flagship political programme Newsnight to be scrapped.
Reform is currently polling as high as 14 per cent in Westminster voting intention surveys ahead of this year’s general election and is often a single-figure margin behind the Conservatives. Around one in four 2019 Tory voters are now planning to back Reform.
The party gained its first ever MP last week after the defection of Lee Anderson, a former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party who lost the whip for claims that Islamists had “got control” of Sadiq Khan, the Labour Mayor of London. Mr Khan has described Mr Anderson’s comments as “wrong” and “heartbreaking”.
It is not the first time that the BBC’s use of “far-Right” has attracted controversy. In December, the corporation was attacked by the Tories for describing a political festival that was hosted by Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, and attended by Rishi Sunak as a “far-Right rally”.
The event was attended by centrist and centre-Left figures as well as a wide range of Right-wing politicians.
**‘Careless categorisation’**
A Tory spokesman said the editorial decision raised “serious questions” about the BBC’s policies and accused it of a “careless categorisation”.
On Tuesday, the PA news agency ran an update to one of its stories from the Liberal Democrat conference, removing the reference to Reform as “far-Right”.
YouGov polling from the end of last year showed that the public was split in its perception of the BBC.
13 per cent believed it was generally much more favourable towards Labour and the Left, while the same amount thought it was more generally a little more favourable towards the Tories and the Right.
A further 26 per cent said the BBC was generally neutral, while one-third (32 per cent) did not know.
If it looks like crap, smells like crap and talks crap, then it is crap.
The right wing loonies that previously told us how great Brexit will be, are now still telling us it’s all the fault of bloody foreigners, but of course they aren’t the far right.
How can political aims not be motivated by political ideology?
Isn’t that an oxymoron?
Pretty sure everyone, both supporters and opponents, recognises they are pretty far to the right
I thought that Reform were the party of free speech and not getting offended by what other people say about you?
It’s a surprise to see that they’re such a bunch of snowflakes that their delicate little feelings get hurt when they’re described as far-right.
Maybe the need a woke trigger warning before someone accurately describes them in the future.
From the article I read that the BBC was also criticised for describing an event organised by Giorgia Meloni’s party as a far-right political rally… that’s the party that “proudly” descends from Mussolini’s fascist party!
I guess we should simply scrap far-right as a term and simply call Reform a fascist party then…
Ah we’re now point where the BBC will apologise for being correct.
[removed]
Ok ok sorry,
We will call you lot the Far-Wrong Party.
Reform are far right by pretty much any definition. They’re literally libertarians.
*”They should be under no illusion that whilst you can’t libel a political party, there is a direct link to the leader and you can libel me and I won’t tolerate it. Anyone else who wants to try this, good luck and I look forward to seeing you in court.”*
*In a separate statement, Mr Tice said his lawyers are also in touch “with other organisations who repeated the BBC line”.*
*He added that he viewed the claim that Reform was a “far-Right” political party as both “defamatory and libellous”.*
So Tice is on another level of being full of shit, then? Either he takes ownership of the party so completely that it should really be called the Richard Tice fan club, or he is flagrantly lying and trying to intimidate news outlets.
Either way, it is ridiculous to hear coming from the leader of a political party. These are huge organisations made up of thousands of people. Tice is trying to police criticism of his party before they’re even in government, who the fuck could read this and happily vote for Reform?
Are we seriously at the stage of discourse where an accurate categorisation is being classed as some kind of slur or slander? Christ on a bike.
Watched that press conference, they are the definition of far right
I would vote for any party tomorrow that would pledge to put us back in the EU, in the next five years.
How far does one have to go before they reach far right then? Or do people who wear suits not count? Only skinheads with DMs and wifebeater vests?
Behold: the shifting of the Overton Window in real time
“Sorry for calling you Far-Right, we will now refer to you as far-from Smart” – BBC probably
This is the same Biased Broadcasting Corp that brought us Brexit, treating both sides as equally valid. Pitting Experts against Idiots and treating them the same.
Some schtick any time a party has right wing policies
We’re getting closer to the eye of the fucking storm every day. This is depressing as shit.
Why? They are far-right aren’t they? Has the BBC ever apologised for calling far-left politicians/parties far-left?
It’s like calling the Labour party under Jeremy Corbyn ‘far-left’ – it’s lazy and ignorant.
Why apologise for saying it like it is? They are right wing. I mean for gods sakes even the thumbnail for this article has Richard Tice as its focus.
I suppose as the current crop of politicians have shifted the Overton Window pretty strongly rightwards they possibly aren’t considered far right any more, which is really depressing in itself.
Right and Left means nothing to me these days.
A good example is that it is possible for a person to be for pro war / genocide but also be against the war in Russia / Ukraine because they want the funds to be spent on weapons and ammunition going to Israel instead.
I’m laughing my ass off right now as our main parties are running a pro war election campaign for Israel and everyone apart from the small minority of Zionists in the UK are against this. So what do they do , claim to be the victim and blame the majority of people who are in favour of peace and the Palestinians.
Zionism is being forced to civilise and hiding behind Judaism does not seem to working anymore.
May I send my peace and love to all people of Judaism not in favour of committing atrocities to the people of Palestine. I personally understand the Zionists do not hold the same values as the majority of Jewish people just the like the main parties of the UK are not a representation of our population.
Would fine to call them far right if you ment in a relative way comapared to Conservatives.
This would then mean than would have to call parties to left of labour far left which the legacy media is completely incapable of doing.
Snp,Greens, ect.
In terms of policy they are not remotely far right.
Weak watered-down nothing of a party.
They are not even to right of early new labour or even to right of old labour on social matters.
The only party more right than them was Britain first and UKIP
Let me correct the headline;
BBC apologises for being correct.
bbc being weak again.
reform is a right wing party. afaik it’s ukip under a new name.
these fools can’t resist using a name that sounds right wing can they?
it’s always something so obvious.
what they want to do next? remove nr island, wales and Scotland from the united kingdom?
all these country first parties are trash and are run by trash racists.
countries are better off when they work together instead of being isolationist morons.
we were better off in the EU not out of it. sooner all the misguided old racists who voted on brexit pop their clogs, the sooner the younger voters can bring about our return to the EU.
Yeah they’re not far right, & gb news is not a tory front. Fark off.
Reform are far right, they just don’t have the balls to fully say what they want.
Reform are firmly right-wing. They’re not far-right lmao, no less than the Greens are far-left…
But they’re right about them being far right follows all the same characteristics.
We apologise sincerely for referring the political party Reform UK as “far right”.
We now accept they are “batshit insane”.
BBC apologises for telling the truth, promises it was an accident
This from the people who think starmer is a borderline communist 😁
Who are obsessed that anyone to the left of them will bring Britain under the yoke of socialism
Right wingers and people on the far right never own the label do they, ask them and they’ll call themselves centrist or ‘just common sense’. Everyone I know on the left is proud they are, myself included
Wouldn’t call them far-right. Right wing populists sure, but it’d be a push to call them far-right.
Strange how they have no problem calling left leaning politicians ‘far left.’
That creaking sound you just heard was the Overton Window undergoing a tectonic shift.
LMFAO so they finally tell the truth and then they APOLOGISE for it? WTF!?
41 comments
The BBC has apologised to Reform UK after calling it “far-Right” in a news report.
The broadcaster made the claim during a report about the Liberal Democrat spring conference in which it referred to Reform surging ahead of Sir Ed Davey’s party in the opinion polls.
Although Reform is to the right of the Conservative Party on issues including legal and illegal immigration and the tax burden, it has previously said its political aims are not motivated by political ideology.
In a statement on Monday, the BBC said: “In an article about the Liberal Democrats’ spring conference, we wrongly described the political party Reform UK as far-Right when referring to polling.
“This sentence was subsequently removed from the article as it fell short of our usual editorial standards. While the original wording was based on news agency copy, we take full responsibility and apologise for the error.”
**‘Vested interests’**
Richard Tice, the leader of Reform, told The Telegraph that while he was “pleased” the BBC had apologised, the error “shouldn’t have happened in the first place”.
“This is a tactic that certain news organisations are going to try, which is to smear and label not only the party but by direct implication myself and other senior figures,” he said.
He argued that the BBC was “terrified of how successful we are becoming” and accused the broadcaster of acting in its own “vested interests”.
“They should be under no illusion that whilst you can’t libel a political party, there is a direct link to the leader and you can libel me and I won’t tolerate it. Anyone else who wants to try this, good luck and I look forward to seeing you in court.”
In a separate statement, Mr Tice said his lawyers are also in touch “with other organisations who repeated the BBC line”.
He added that he viewed the claim that Reform was a “far-Right” political party as both “defamatory and libellous”.
Reform has promised to ditch the BBC licence fee, which currently stands at £159 per year but will increase by £10.50, a rise of 6.6 per cent, in April.
The pre-election manifesto unveiled by Reform at its spring conference last month reads: “The out-of-touch, wasteful BBC is institutionally biased. The TV licence is taxation without representation. In a world of on-demand TV, people should be free to choose.”
**‘Biased’**
Mr Tice, a presenter on GB News, has regularly railed against the BBC and claimed it is “biased” against figures on the Right, calling for its flagship political programme Newsnight to be scrapped.
Reform is currently polling as high as 14 per cent in Westminster voting intention surveys ahead of this year’s general election and is often a single-figure margin behind the Conservatives. Around one in four 2019 Tory voters are now planning to back Reform.
The party gained its first ever MP last week after the defection of Lee Anderson, a former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party who lost the whip for claims that Islamists had “got control” of Sadiq Khan, the Labour Mayor of London. Mr Khan has described Mr Anderson’s comments as “wrong” and “heartbreaking”.
It is not the first time that the BBC’s use of “far-Right” has attracted controversy. In December, the corporation was attacked by the Tories for describing a political festival that was hosted by Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, and attended by Rishi Sunak as a “far-Right rally”.
The event was attended by centrist and centre-Left figures as well as a wide range of Right-wing politicians.
**‘Careless categorisation’**
A Tory spokesman said the editorial decision raised “serious questions” about the BBC’s policies and accused it of a “careless categorisation”.
On Tuesday, the PA news agency ran an update to one of its stories from the Liberal Democrat conference, removing the reference to Reform as “far-Right”.
YouGov polling from the end of last year showed that the public was split in its perception of the BBC.
13 per cent believed it was generally much more favourable towards Labour and the Left, while the same amount thought it was more generally a little more favourable towards the Tories and the Right.
A further 26 per cent said the BBC was generally neutral, while one-third (32 per cent) did not know.
If it looks like crap, smells like crap and talks crap, then it is crap.
The right wing loonies that previously told us how great Brexit will be, are now still telling us it’s all the fault of bloody foreigners, but of course they aren’t the far right.
How can political aims not be motivated by political ideology?
Isn’t that an oxymoron?
Pretty sure everyone, both supporters and opponents, recognises they are pretty far to the right
I thought that Reform were the party of free speech and not getting offended by what other people say about you?
It’s a surprise to see that they’re such a bunch of snowflakes that their delicate little feelings get hurt when they’re described as far-right.
Maybe the need a woke trigger warning before someone accurately describes them in the future.
From the article I read that the BBC was also criticised for describing an event organised by Giorgia Meloni’s party as a far-right political rally… that’s the party that “proudly” descends from Mussolini’s fascist party!
I guess we should simply scrap far-right as a term and simply call Reform a fascist party then…
Ah we’re now point where the BBC will apologise for being correct.
[removed]
Ok ok sorry,
We will call you lot the Far-Wrong Party.
Reform are far right by pretty much any definition. They’re literally libertarians.
*”They should be under no illusion that whilst you can’t libel a political party, there is a direct link to the leader and you can libel me and I won’t tolerate it. Anyone else who wants to try this, good luck and I look forward to seeing you in court.”*
*In a separate statement, Mr Tice said his lawyers are also in touch “with other organisations who repeated the BBC line”.*
*He added that he viewed the claim that Reform was a “far-Right” political party as both “defamatory and libellous”.*
So Tice is on another level of being full of shit, then? Either he takes ownership of the party so completely that it should really be called the Richard Tice fan club, or he is flagrantly lying and trying to intimidate news outlets.
Either way, it is ridiculous to hear coming from the leader of a political party. These are huge organisations made up of thousands of people. Tice is trying to police criticism of his party before they’re even in government, who the fuck could read this and happily vote for Reform?
Are we seriously at the stage of discourse where an accurate categorisation is being classed as some kind of slur or slander? Christ on a bike.
Watched that press conference, they are the definition of far right
I would vote for any party tomorrow that would pledge to put us back in the EU, in the next five years.
How far does one have to go before they reach far right then? Or do people who wear suits not count? Only skinheads with DMs and wifebeater vests?
Behold: the shifting of the Overton Window in real time
“Sorry for calling you Far-Right, we will now refer to you as far-from Smart” – BBC probably
This is the same Biased Broadcasting Corp that brought us Brexit, treating both sides as equally valid. Pitting Experts against Idiots and treating them the same.
Some schtick any time a party has right wing policies
We’re getting closer to the eye of the fucking storm every day. This is depressing as shit.
Why? They are far-right aren’t they? Has the BBC ever apologised for calling far-left politicians/parties far-left?
It’s like calling the Labour party under Jeremy Corbyn ‘far-left’ – it’s lazy and ignorant.
Why apologise for saying it like it is? They are right wing. I mean for gods sakes even the thumbnail for this article has Richard Tice as its focus.
I suppose as the current crop of politicians have shifted the Overton Window pretty strongly rightwards they possibly aren’t considered far right any more, which is really depressing in itself.
Right and Left means nothing to me these days.
A good example is that it is possible for a person to be for pro war / genocide but also be against the war in Russia / Ukraine because they want the funds to be spent on weapons and ammunition going to Israel instead.
I’m laughing my ass off right now as our main parties are running a pro war election campaign for Israel and everyone apart from the small minority of Zionists in the UK are against this. So what do they do , claim to be the victim and blame the majority of people who are in favour of peace and the Palestinians.
Zionism is being forced to civilise and hiding behind Judaism does not seem to working anymore.
May I send my peace and love to all people of Judaism not in favour of committing atrocities to the people of Palestine. I personally understand the Zionists do not hold the same values as the majority of Jewish people just the like the main parties of the UK are not a representation of our population.
Would fine to call them far right if you ment in a relative way comapared to Conservatives.
This would then mean than would have to call parties to left of labour far left which the legacy media is completely incapable of doing.
Snp,Greens, ect.
In terms of policy they are not remotely far right.
Weak watered-down nothing of a party.
They are not even to right of early new labour or even to right of old labour on social matters.
The only party more right than them was Britain first and UKIP
Let me correct the headline;
BBC apologises for being correct.
bbc being weak again.
reform is a right wing party. afaik it’s ukip under a new name.
these fools can’t resist using a name that sounds right wing can they?
it’s always something so obvious.
what they want to do next? remove nr island, wales and Scotland from the united kingdom?
all these country first parties are trash and are run by trash racists.
countries are better off when they work together instead of being isolationist morons.
we were better off in the EU not out of it. sooner all the misguided old racists who voted on brexit pop their clogs, the sooner the younger voters can bring about our return to the EU.
Yeah they’re not far right, & gb news is not a tory front. Fark off.
Reform are far right, they just don’t have the balls to fully say what they want.
Reform are firmly right-wing. They’re not far-right lmao, no less than the Greens are far-left…
But they’re right about them being far right follows all the same characteristics.
We apologise sincerely for referring the political party Reform UK as “far right”.
We now accept they are “batshit insane”.
BBC apologises for telling the truth, promises it was an accident
This from the people who think starmer is a borderline communist 😁
Who are obsessed that anyone to the left of them will bring Britain under the yoke of socialism
Right wingers and people on the far right never own the label do they, ask them and they’ll call themselves centrist or ‘just common sense’. Everyone I know on the left is proud they are, myself included
Wouldn’t call them far-right. Right wing populists sure, but it’d be a push to call them far-right.
Strange how they have no problem calling left leaning politicians ‘far left.’
That creaking sound you just heard was the Overton Window undergoing a tectonic shift.
LMFAO so they finally tell the truth and then they APOLOGISE for it? WTF!?