Viewers of BBC's Laura Kuenssberg complained she was too soft on Nigel Farage during his appearance on her self-titled show on Sunday. The Reform UK leader was questioned about his previous comments during the 2016 Brexit Referendum campaign, and argued that Burnham's recent government deal with Europe will lead to "open doors immigration".
Several viewers took to social media to claim the host had gone easy on the politician during the interview.
Viewers accuse host of going easy
One X user wrote: "The Nigel Farage interview with Laura Kuenssberg contained only one weak question, right at the end about the various investigations he & his party members are facing. Which he didn't answer."
GMB regular Narinder Kaur vented: "I'm trying to be fair here but genuinely- is #BBCLauraK being gentle on Nigel Farage? I'm just not feeling any intensity or scrutiny on any level? All softly, softly she treads. Just me?"
A third tweeted: "@bbclaurak presenting another cosy chat with the right." A fourth lashed out: "I wouldn't even waste time watching @bbclaurak. I think we need to just stop paying licence fees, and boycott the BBC."
On-air disagreement over Türkiye
The politician and host went back and forth in an on-air disagreement over Farage's comments about Türkiye and immigration.
Laura remarked: "You said that Türkiye was being fast-tracked into the European Union (EU). That wasn't the case. That's not happened. The prime minister at the time said it wouldn't happen and that the UK could stop it. That wasn't right, was it?"
Nigel replied: "Yes it was. And in fact we had been paying Türkiye billions in military pre-accession aid for many, many years." The BBC host interjected: "It wasn't true they were being fast tracked."
He argued: "It was an ambition of the European Union to get Türkiye in as quickly as possible. It hasn't come to that because Türkiye is far less stable than it was. But it was absolutely true."
In a bizarre back-and-forth, Laura reiterated that it wasn't true that Türkiye was being fast-tracked into the EU. To which Nigel replied, "Entirely true." She mused: "It wasn't true."
