THE BBC is accused of breaching its own impartiality rules after scheduling “what is effectively an hour-long party political broadcast to the Conservative Party”.
A complaint raised with the broadcaster focuses on its decision to air a debate between the final two Tory MPs contending to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister.
The hour-long debate will air at 9pm on Monday July 25 on both BBC One and BBC Radio Five Live.
The two finalists in the Tory leadership race – Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss – will also be invited to appear in one-to-one interviews with the BBC’s Nick Robinson as part of a separate broadcast.
The focus on the Conservatives has raised “clear concerns over the political impartiality of the broadcaster as other political parties will not be given parity of coverage”, according to Alba’s general secretary.
Chris McEleny has written to Ric Bailey, the BBC’s chief political adviser and deputy director of editorial policy and standards, to allege that the broadcaster “is in breach of your own rules”.
The Alba man highlighted section four of the BBC’s editorial guidance, which says the broadcaster must remain impartial, “independent and distanced from government initiatives, campaigners, charities and their agendas”.
He adds: “It is difficult to understand how any reasonable member of the public would conclude that a Tory leadership debate, in which both candidates are targeting solely Conservative Party members in their campaigns, does not breach this clause.”
In the letter dated July 19, McEleny (above) writes: “Each of the candidates on the debate will have uninterrupted airtime to profess their views on matters such as denying the people of Scotland their right to determine their own future via a referendum on Scottish independence without a balanced pro-independence point of view being afforded the same airtime.”
He goes on: “This latest decision of the BBC to beam into televisions across Scotland a Tory leadership debate is just the latest of a long line of BBC decisions that have resulted in a fundamental breakdown of trust between the BBC and the people of Scotland.
“The people of Scotland have rejected the Conservative Party at every election for over seven decades, why then must they be subjected to a politically biased televised debate when they will have no recourse whatsoever to influence the result?
“It is no wonder then that a growing number of people in Scotland continue to refuse to pay the BBC licence fee.
“I look forward to your response in which you will set out how other political parties such as my own will be offered the opportunity to present an alternative point of view and for you to explain your editorial decision which is in breach of your own rules.”
Further concerns about breaches of impartiality have been raised amid the focus on the Conservative MPs bidding to replace disgraced interim prime minister Johnson.
An SNP source told The National on Tuesday that “wall-to-wall Tories on the BBC is failing audiences” after a news anchor admitted one Tory MP had been “almost ubiquitous” on their channel.
And writing for The Sunday National, the former top Channel 4 executive Stuart Cosgrove said the media’s coverage of the Tory leadership race had taken “a wrecking ball to fairness”.
Cosgrove wrote: “The much-loved concept of impartiality, which sits at the heart of public service broadcasting, and is a byword for BBC internal discipline, has taken a monumental doing this week, exposing deep fault-lines within how our media covers elected politics.”
A BBC spokesperson said: “We’re confident that hosting a debate between the two candidates in the contest to become prime minister of the UK is in accordance with the BBC’s editorial guidelines.”
