The BBC has apologised to Reform U.K. after calling it “far-Right” in a news report. The Telegraph has more.
The broadcaster made the claim during a report about the Liberal Democrat spring conference in which it referred to Reform surging ahead of Sir Ed Davey’s party in the opinion polls.
Although Reform is to the Right of the Conservative Party on issues including legal and illegal immigration and the tax burden, it has previously said its political aims are not motivated by political ideology.
In a statement on Monday, the BBC said: “In an article about the Liberal Democrats’ spring conference, we wrongly described the political party Reform U.K. as far-Right when referring to polling.
“This sentence was subsequently removed from the article as it fell short of our usual editorial standards. While the original wording was based on news agency copy, we take full responsibility and apologise for the error.”
Richard Tice, the leader of Reform, told the Telegraph that while he was “pleased” the BBC had apologised, the error “shouldn’t have happened in the first place”.
“This is a tactic that certain news organisations are going to try, which is to smear and label not only the party but by direct implication myself and other senior figures,” he said. …
On Tuesday, the PA news agency ran an update to one of its stories from the Liberal Democrat conference, removing the reference to Reform as “far-Right”.
Worth reading in full.
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