Angry Tories turn on BBC over Partygate coverage with one claiming it is ‘going on and on’ about it

The BBC is running a witch-hunt against Boris Johnson, Tory MPs claimed yesterday.

In an angry exchange on live TV, Lee Anderson insisted the corporation was going ‘on and on and on’ about Partygate and this was ‘quite sad’.

Another Conservative MP, Adam Holloway, accused BBC’s Newsnight of using an image of the Prime Minister that made him look like the movie monster Hannibal Lecter.

On Monday Mr Johnson warned of the media’s ‘focus on the leadership of the Conservative Party’ – without singling out the BBC.

On Monday Mr Johnson warned of the media’s ‘focus on the leadership of the Conservative Party’ – without singling out the BBC 

But the Government is known to be irritated at the way the corporation has focused on allegations that Downing Street broke lockdown regulations during the pandemic.

The accusation from Mr Anderson, MP for Ashfield in Nottinghamshire, was made yesterday morning during an interview with the BBC’s Geeta Guru-Murthy.

She asked him about Mr Johnson, saying he had been accused of having ‘lied to the Queen, lied to the House of Commons, lied to the public’.

Mr Anderson replied: ‘What people see, Geeta, is a witch-hunt led by the BBC, led by the Labour Party.’

Miss Guru-Murthy replied: ‘It’s the Conservative MPs who have voted; not any of the media.’

The MP said: ‘Listen to me, listen to me. It’s led by the BBC who have had it in for Boris from day one, there’s been a massive witch-hunt. It’s about time you got off his back, let him crack on with running the country. Come back and talk to me in two years’ time when he’s delivered on his promises and we’ll see where we are.’

The presenter told the MP: ‘There is no witch-hunt I can assure you from the BBC.’

But Mr Anderson replied: ‘No, there is a witch-hunt. My inbox is full of people complaining about the BBC all the time, saying it should be defunded. There’s a massive witch-hunt by you and the Labour Party and the mainstream media, on his case all the time.

The accusation from Mr Anderson, MP for Ashfield in Nottinghamshire, was made yesterday morning during an interview with the BBC’s Geeta Guru-Murthy (pictured) 

‘You’re not going to let this drop are you? You’re going to go on and on and on. It’s quite sad.’

Miss Guru-Murthy countered: ‘It is not a witch-hunt by anyone in the Press. Our job is to ask questions of all politicians, which is what we do regardless of party.’

Hours earlier Mr Holloway, who represents Gravesham in Kent, accused the BBC of using a graphic that made the Prime Minister look like the serial killer in Silence of the Lambs.

He said: ‘There is great damage to the reputation of politics and it should also do damage to organisations like the BBC. The programme that I’m on now was showing pictures of him looking like Hannibal Lecter.’

After Newsnight presenter Mark Urban replied: ‘Oh, come on’, Mr Holloway held up a screengrab and said: ‘Look at that. He’s got razor blades.

‘Does that guy look like someone who has been given a birthday cake or someone who has been locked up for something at the Old Bailey?’

The BBC declined to comment.