‘I’d like a referendum on my licence fee’: Furious viewers slam the BBC’s for its ‘biased’ election coverage focusing on Lib Dems and Greens rather than Farage’s big Brexit Party win
- Viewers accused the BBC of downplaying Nigel Farage’s EU election victory
- They also took aim at presenters for not challenging Alastair Campbell for his comments that the Brexit Party had the ‘roubles coming in’
- However the Liberal Democrats also felt they had not been given enough airtime
Furious Brexit Party supporters have hit out at BBC election coverage claiming it was ‘biased’ and downplayed Nigel Farage’s triumph at the polls.
Viewers felt the corporation’s election broadcast had emphasised the strong performance of the Greens and Liberal Democrats rather than focusing on Mr Farage’s victory.
They also took aim at BBC presenters for allowing former Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell to launch an attack on the Brexit Party’s finances.
Mr Campbell, a close former aide of Tony Blair, said Mr Farage’s party had had the ‘roubles coming in’ – a reference to the Brexit campaign’s alleged links to Russian money.
However the Liberal Democrats also felt they had not been given enough airtime.
Nigel Farage (pictured giving his victory speech last night) won the European Parliament elections but some BBC viewers thought the corporation gave him too little coverage
Some viewers of the BBC’s election broadcast took aim at former Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell (pictured) over his comments about the Brexit Party
With most results in, the Brexit Party had won the vast majority of council areas in England and Wales last night. This map shows the largest party in each area
Former UKIP MEP Patrick O’Flynn said: ‘I know it’s early, but I must say BBC coverage is missing the obvious huge story – the Brexit Party has won these elections and won them big.’
One Brexiteer said on Twitter: ‘BBC EU programme now resorting to waxing lyrical on a People’s Vote, second referendum, guest after guest droning on about it and compromise, bringing the country together.
‘A massive BXP election performance has been turned into a BBC remain party political broadcast.
Another accused the BBC of ‘completely ignoring the fact the Brexit Party is topping the results’.
Furious viewers of the BBC’s election coverage took to Twitter to accuse the corporation of biased coverage, emphasising the success of Lib Dems and Greens rather than Nigel Farage
The Brexit Party has won the most seats in the European Parliament election, while Labour was pushed into third place by the Liberal Democrats
This chart shows the shares of the vote in the EU elections with the Brexit Party well ahead
Mark Vipond said: ‘BBC News currently doing an outstanding job of not mentioning the Brexit Party in its coverage.
‘They’ve just spent half an hour telling us how great the Lib Dems are doing in London.’
In a colourful complaint Andy Fitch said: ‘I’d like a referendum on my licence fee after the disgracefully biased coverage tonight.
‘The BBC confirms its stance as a bunch of Chai tea drinking Islington hipsters who continue to deny Farage’s victory.’
Harrison Hale wrote: ‘More coverage from the Biased Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) – all they can talk about is betraying the democratic will of the British people.
‘As the results show, the British people are better than that and will not stand for it.’
Yet another viewer said: ‘The BBC coverage is disgraceful , they are ignoring the success of the Brexit Party.
One viewer said the BBC was ‘not mentioning the Brexit Party in its coverage’ while another took aim at Alastair Campbell being allowed to speak about the party’s ‘roubles’
‘Instead they are reporting on the growth in the smaller pro EU parties. This is clear institutional pro EU bias from the BBC.’
Talking about Alastair Campbell’s comments, one viewer said the BBC should have urged him to ‘apologise or retract’ the ‘roubles’ remark.
Another said: ‘Alastair Campbell cannot be allowed to get away scot free with that smear.’
However, some viewers and politicians felt the coverage had, conversely, been too pro-Brexit.
The Liberal Democrats said: ‘Delighted to have been allowed about 5 minutes of discussion over the BBC’s election night coverage, given we are only on course to be 2nd in terms of votes and seats with our best ever result in European Elections.’
And another furious viewer said: ‘After two and a half hours of election coverage, the BBC finally decided to let a Green voice speak.’
This diagram shows the change in vote shares with Labour, the Conservatives and UKIP all losing ground while the Brexit Party came from nowhere and the Lib Dems and Greens gained