The Liberal Democrats have demanded that the Office of Communications (Ofcom, Britain’s media regulator) investigate what they call the BBC’s “disproportionate” attention to Nigel Farage and Reform UK.
In a letter to Ofcom chief executive Melanie Dawes, Lib Dem Culture and Media spokesman Max Wilkinson MP said
by paying such disproportionate attention to Nigel Farage’s latest outfit, Reform UK, the BBC is compromising its reputation.
The spokesman fumed that the BBC’s online platform “mentions Nigel Farage three times as frequently as it does [Liberal Democrat leader] Ed Davey.”
The Lib Dems even launched a “Balance the BBC” petition, alleging that Farage accounts for “60 per cent of the BBC website’s mentions of opposition leaders.” The petition calls for rules on balance to ”apply all year round so people can trust the BBC.” In the background, the pro-Brussels party lags behind Reform at the polls, despite the quirks of the UK electoral system giving it a larger share of elected members of Parliament.
Reform UK dismissed the criticism, telling GB News
We can’t help it if our leader is more interesting than theirs.
The Liberal Democrats were not the only ones venting anger at Reform. Former Labour Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell went so far as to compare Nigel Farage to Adolf Hitler during a speech at the Trade Union Congress.
This dispute over the BBC comes amid wider attempts to tighten control of Britain’s media. Ofcom, a regulator characterised by mission-creep launched another consultation in May to muzzle GB News—despite the High Court ruling in March that it had unlawfully censured the channel. In August the self-beclowning left-liberal Good Law Project was caught weaponising fake statistics in its attacks on GB News.
