Former Tory MP erupts at BBC - 'They are fascinated with Nigel Farage'

A former Tory MP claimed the BBC is "fascinated with Nigel Farage" as a £760 million impartiality lawsuit looms. He said the broadcaster, which has been accused by Donald Trump of interfering with a presidential election, is "determined to drive a political agenda" by portraying the Reform UK leader as a "social pariah" but in doing so, actually increases his vote count.

Speaking with JJ Anisiobi on the Daily Expresso podcast, Jonathan Gullis, who represented Stoke-on-Trent from 2019 to 2024, also called out the BBC for its reporting during Brexit, claiming they pushed the remain agenda, which he said was the "straw that broke the camel's back" for its role in impartial journalism.

Mr Gullis said: "The BBC hasn't had much to be proud of, I think, for decades, to be perfectly frank. I'm a longstanding advocate for scrapping the licence fee altogether, so it won't shock those who are tuning in here to the Daily Expresso that maybe I'm not going to come to the BBC's defence."

He added: "When I used to tune in as someone who was a Brexiteer, I would see people pushing their pro-Remain, pro second referendum agenda, time after time, very rarely hearing true Brexit voices on air.

"And ultimately, it made me feel that this institution was determined to drive the political agenda rather than report what the views were in areas like I live now and Stoke-on-Trent, where 73% voted to leave the European Union."

However, host JJ Anisiobi responded that Nigel Farage is one of the most heard politicians on the BBC, having appeared on Newsnight "more than anyone else".

The broadcaster came under pressure last year over the amount of coverage dedicated to Reform UK after a Cardiff University study showed it featured in a quarter of all News At Ten bulletins from January to July, with 49 references compared to 35 for the Liberal Democrats.

Mr Gullis claimed the BBC is "fascinated with people like Nigel Farage" because it wants to "pillar him at every opportunity, to make him some sort of social pariah, which only ever helps drive the vote towards Reform UK".

The former Tory MP compared it to 2016 when Donald Trump first ran for election, saying "continuous free media" allowed Trump to avoid spending "millions of pounds on advertisement, because the media were willing to play his clips and share his tweets".

He continued: "I think with Nigel Farage what they have not understood is, outside this cosy M25 London bubble that we're recording from right now, there is a world that has seen the high streets be ravaged, deindustrialisation, which is meaning cities lose their identities, the net zero agenda just being a complete and utter farce, and mass migration, both legal and illegal, on a scale that has transformed communities like not seen before.

"People are sick and tired of a political class, and a London elite, who simply do not understand them."

The BBC is currently reeling after The Telegraph leaked an internal memo, which revealed it had stitched together separate pieces of Trump's speech from almost an hour apart in a BBC Panorama report.

It made it look as though Trump had told supporters to march to the Capitol and "fight like hell" on January 6, 2021, right before the US presidential election. He had actually told supporters he would walk with them “to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard”.

Donald Trump has warned the BBC it must comply with three urgent demands to avoid a £760 million lawsuit.