THE BBC debate crisis deepened last night as the country’s leading Jewish group demanded an apology over its failures.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews said it was “severely disappointed” that Abdullah Patel was invited onto the prime-time show without his vile online comments being discovered by producers.
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And it was “deeply concerned” that the BBC then dismissed one of his tweets as anti-Israel, suggesting it was about “mere political disagreements” rather than hatred of Jews.
Marie van der Zyl, President of the Board of Deputies, wrote to BBC News director Fran Unsworth: “We would like you to correct any online reporting of the tweet, stating clearly that it is anti-Semitic.
“We would also ask for an onscreen apology and a pledge to accurately report antisemitism in future.”
She even offered to “organise diversity training to correct what appears to be a troubling lack of sensitivity” in the Corporation.
The BBC was still refusing to say sorry for the debacle – which also saw a former Labour council candidate and HQ worker demand that the Tory contenders call an election – but announced that it would look again at vetting of guests for political shows.
‘THE QUESTIONS WERE GOOD ONES’
A spokesman said: “We have a long history of producing successful debate programmes and this was no different. We did however, adopt a different format for this programme and we will look at whether there are additional steps we might take on vetting and transparency should we repeat it in the future.”
Rob Burley, editor of the BBC’s live political shows, continued to defend Tuesday night’s show, telling critics on Twitter: “The questions were good ones.
“We didn’t say the questioners were representative or selected by anyone but us on basis of the questions.”
He insisted that researchers were unable to spot Mr Patel’s offensive social media comments – which included claiming that “every political figure on the Zionist’s payroll is scaring the world about Corbyn” and calling for Israel to be relocated to the USA – because he had deactivated his Twitter account before the BBC One programme aired.
Broadcasting watchdog Ofcom has received more than 30 complaints about the show so far but viewers are meant to raise concerns with the BBC first so the true number will not be known until its next fortnightly report is published.
‘DEEPLY CONCERNED’
The Conservative Party is still considering whether or not to lodge a formal complaint but many senior MPs are urging it do so, and even considering boycotting future leaders’ debates.
Former leader Iain Duncan Smith called the BBC the “Stop Boris Johnson Broadcasting Service” and told The Sun: “I think it is an utter disgrace what happened. I’m astonished the BBC has the utter arrogance not to apologise.”
Former Brexit Secretary David Davis called it the “Boris Bashing Corporation” while the debacle was raised in both houses of Parliament yesterday.
Veteran Tory backbencher Sir David Amess called for a debate on the future of the BBC, saying in the Commons: “There have already been concerns about taking away free TV licences from the over-75s, but frankly, after that dreadful debate on Monday between my parliamentary colleagues, the quality of public broadcasting needs to be looked at.
“Presumably, during the course of our debate, we could find out who the idiot was in central office who agreed to the format of that programme in the first place.”
Commons leader Mel Stride replied: “I have to say that I agree with my hon. Friend’s observation on the televised hustings, which made the candidates look like some kind of boy band perched on their stools.”
And in a House of Lords debate on anti-Semitism, Lord Polak said: “The BBC clearly has many questions to answer about Abdullah Patel from Bristol.”
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The Sun Says
THE BBC’s defence of its shameful Tory leadership TV debate is pathetic.
Its leftie journalists gave a platform to a Corbyn-backing anti-Semite and a former Corbyn staffer and passed them off as random punters. Neither was interested in honest, fair scrutiny. Their agenda was to benefit Labour.
Nor were their questions “good ones”, as its live politics editor feebly insists.
One stoked flimsy claims about a Tory Islamophobia problem, a naked attempt to distract from Labour’s genuine epidemic of Jew-hatred. Another baldly stated that no Tory had a mandate to govern and demanded an election.
Johnson and Hunt should boycott further partisan BBC stitch-ups.
