Nigel Farage has announced he is boycotting the BBC, accusing the broadcaster of bias over his reception on Friday night’s Question Time. The Reform UK leader took part in a leaders’ special episode, a half-hour Q&A session with a live audience, in which he was heavily criticised. One audience member called him a racist and another asked why his party attracted extremists.
Farage disowned three candidates while on the show after being presented with their reportedly offensive remarks, saying he wanted “nothing to do with them”. A Reform spokesperson later confirmed to the corporation they had been dropped. But on Saturday afternoon, Farage said he would no longer appear on the BBC, claiming he had been treated unfairly by being handed a biased audience.
Writing on X, he said: “I have just been invited to appear on Laura Kuenssberg. I’m refusing until the BBC apologises for their dishonest Question Time audience. Our state broadcaster has behaved like a political actor throughout this election. Reform will be campaigning vigorously to abolish the licence fee.”
A BBC spokesperson said: “We refute these claims. Last night’s Question Time audience was made up of broadly similar levels of representation from Reform UK and the Green party, with the other parties represented too. There were also a number of people, with a range of political views, who were still making up their mind.”
Separately, Reform UK has complained to the Electoral Commission and Essex police about a Channel 4 undercover investigation of the party. The investigation revealed racist and homophobic comments made by Reform campaigners, including activist Andrew Parker calling Prime Minister Rishi Sunak a “fucking [P-word]”. Farage suggested Parker may have been a paid actor, but Channel 4 denied this, saying they met him for the first time at Reform UK party headquarters where he was a canvasser.
Rishi Sunak reacted with outrage to the slur, saying: “My two daughters have to see and hear Reform people who campaign for Nigel Farage calling me an effing [P-word]. It hurts and it makes me angry, and I think he has some questions to answer.” Keir Starmer also censured Farage for failing to show leadership over tackling allegations of racism, and said he shared Sunak’s “disgust”.
