THE BBC has been “really bad” at robustly questioning Nigel Farage throughout the election because it is more comfortable with an anti-establishment figure on the right than the left, an expert has claimed.
There has been huge criticism in recent weeks over the platform and treatment the Reform UK leader has received from the broadcaster given the party’s lack of electoral success.
A second Question Time leaders special was hastily arranged by the BBC so he could appear after not being involved in the first one, while a Panorama interview with Nick Robinson was also rescheduled after Farage pulled out at the last minute.
He’s also featured in major political programmes such as Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.
Asked by The National why the BBC has given Farage such a platform, Tom Mills, a sociology expert and author of The BBC: The Myth of a Public Service, claimed it’s because they are such a big part of a “political establishment which has drifted to the right”.
Mills (below) told The National: “I think the simple answer to why they [the BBC] like Nigel Farage is they are much more comfortable with an anti-establishment figure on the right than the left. It’s as simple as that.
“He’s on their political spectrum and the political spectrum for the BBC runs from the centrists out to Nigel Farage.
“They still see those guys [like Farage] as being rogue figures of the establishment, but they are just given legitimacy by the fact that there’s lots of voices they [the BBC] see to be legitimate in these media organisations which speak from a similar sort of perspective.”
Asked why the BBC are more comfortable platforming the right, Mills went on: “I think they see it as more authentic because that’s how they see the media scene, divided between high-brow liberal and low-brow uneducated, right-wingers.
“I think the other reason is they get a lot of pressure from the right. They [BBC figures] see themselves as on the left as they’re more likely to read the Guardian than the Mail, so they’re vulnerable to pressure from the right.”
However, Mills insisted the way to deal with figures like Farage being platformed so much is not to take them off the TV entirely, but to ensure they are treated more robustly.
“I don’t think the answer is get these guys off the TV. I think it’s let’s treat them more robustly, like journalists have a responsibility to do, and their job should also be to balance it with figures on the left or in environmental movements, for example,” he added.
“I think they’ve been really bad [at questioning Farage]. To my mind they’ve never questioned him in a way that really undermines the nature of his support.
“The assumption in coverage is always immigration is bad, but how bad is it? How many people need to be stopped? I think some of that quite subtly frames the political conversations.”
The BBC was found to have been disproportionately platforming people from right-wing media outlets on Question Time over the past decade by researchers at Cardiff University.
They analysed a total of 352 programmes with 1734 guest slots, which were filled by 661 different people.
However, while they found that the BBC had “broadly balanced” appearances from representatives of the UK’s main political parties, when it came to members of the media a right-wing bias became evident.
Mills said that for the BBC, these figures from the press form the national conversation, so Farage is part of a right-wing environment that seems “normal to them”.
Mills added: “When you start to bring in figures from the British media [onto Question Time], that’s where you get this extraordinary right-wing shift, and for the BBC that’s kind of like the national conversation.
“They read these papers every day and they set the agenda. So people to the left of that just don’t exist to them.
“Sometimes I think people who are trying to fight back the influence of the far right are missing the broader point. For me, the issue is, what is the environment that has been created that has allowed Nigel Farage to flourish?
“The BBC is so much part of this political establishment that has drifted right, it’s cut off any opportunities for any centre left solutions and that’s created this vacuum in which they then end up reaching out to the right.”
On Tuesday, Reform UK chairman Richard Tice suggested the Conservatives have placed “Trojan horse” candidates to “spread lies” about the party.
In the past week, two Reform UK candidates have dropped out of the campaign and endorsed the Tories, citing the ongoing row about racism in the organisation.
Tice wrote on X: “Desperate toxic Tories sent us some Trojan horse candidates by offering jobs, safe council seats etc to spread lies.
“Their corruption will rightly be punished by voters on July 4. Many millions will vote Reform for change.”
A BBC spokesperson said: "The Brexit Party, as Reform UK were previously named, stood in the 2019 general election, and were the most successful of the UK political parties at the European Parliament elections in 2019. Reform UK are currently polling at around 11%, and should this translate to how votes are cast in the General Election, could have a significant impact on the result.
"We have made clear that Mr Farage has never been an MP. However, Mr Farage has been a prominent figure in British politics for many years, having been an influential campaigner for Brexit, leader of UKIP, Reform UK and the Brexit Party. Mr Farage was also an MEP for 20 years.
"We will apply the same scrutiny to Mr Farage and the polices advocated by Reform UK that we will other political leaders and their parties. We will include a balance of representatives from political parties in our coverage, not just candidates for the House of Commons."
