THE BBC has been accused of “parroting Tory lines” after a news presenter seemed to describe the push for a second Scottish independence referendum as a “problem”.
The moment came during a report on the upcoming Tory leadership hustings in Perth, which will see Foreign Secretary Liz Truss face off against former chancellor Rishi Sunak in front of a crowd of Conservative party members.
Both candidates were on the campaign trail in Scotland on Tuesday, with Truss visiting a whisky distillery in Moray while Sunak spoke to voters in Aberdeenshire.
Looking ahead to the evening’s hustings, BBC host Clive Myrie said: “Both Conservative Party leadership candidates have stated their opposition to a referendum on Scottish independence. Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak will be in Perth today addressing Tory voters.”
“The problem is we know Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister, is committed to pushing ahead to try to get a referendum vote,” Myrie went on after introducing Scotland correspondent James Shaw.
Shaw said that was “exactly right”, before describing the Perth hustings as “the one opportunity they get to make their case about the Union, the future of the UK, to Conservative members in Scotland”.
He said that both candidates would be likely to talk about “failings” in the Scottish Government during the SNP’s 15 years in power, but that the Union would be the dominant issue at the debate.
Shaw said it was “not necessarily the majority view” that Scotland’s place in the Union should be “guaranteed”, but stressed that the two leadership hopefuls were playing to the “small constituency of Conservative members north of the Border”.
Clive Myrie is one of the most respected people in tv news industry but "the problem is" this intro, as just seen on the @BBCnews at 1, is a bit of a howler. pic.twitter.com/b83L6VvofT
— Erik Geddes (@erikgeddes) August 16, 2022
An SNP source later told The National that the BBC’s trust ratings would take a hit from the kind of language used in the clip.
They said: "The BBC really needs to get a grip.
“Parroting Tory lines and assuming anti-democratic positions will lead to audiences switching over and trust ratings north of the Border sinking lower."
The Scottish Election Study, published in May, found that 62% of voters believe there should be an independence referendum in the next 10 years, against 32% who never want a second vote. Broken down, 15% of Scots wanted a vote in the next decade, 16% wanted one within five years, 22% wanted one within the first half of the parliamentary term, and 9% wanted one “as soon as possible”.
A separate Scottish Election Survey, published in June, found that, when voters were reminded that pro-independence parties held a majority at Holyrood, 61% of people said they felt that was a mandate to hold a second vote.
The BBC declined to comment.
