BBC accused of having ‘hostile Left-wing audience’ for Farage’s Question Time debate

Presenter Fiona Bruce and Nigel Farage during the debate which some have suggested was biased - REUTERS

The BBC has been accused of having a “hostile” Left-leaning audience for Nigel Farage in its Question Time leaders’ special.

The Reform UK leader appeared in the 30-minute programme on Friday night and faced questions on immigration, racism and the NHS.

Mr Farage did not receive a single round of applause from the studio audience during the entire broadcast.

Lee Harris, a political commentator, said Mr Farage had “come out fighting” despite the audience’s apparent opposition to him.

“The BBC clearly have a very hostile Left-wing audience and Nigel Farage has come out fighting,” he said.

Patrick O’Flynn, the columnist and former UKIP MEP, said: “I think I’m right in saying not a single person in that BBC audience applauded anything Nigel Farage said.”

Patrick Christys, the GB News presenter, said the audience did not represent “wider society”.

“This BBC audience is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever seen,” he said. “It’s simply not representative of the views of wider society.”

The programme started with a series of questions about a Reform canvasser who was filmed using a racial slur to describe the Prime Minister.

Mr Farage has claimed the undercover reporting was a “set-up” and that the activist was a paid actor.

The Reform leader was then mocked by an audience member after claiming that the party’s vetting issues were because it was a “start-up party”.

“Some of my friends have start-up companies, but none of them employ a whole slew of massive racists like you,” the man said.

The next question came from a woman in the studio who asked: “I just want to know when are you actually going to take responsibility for your actions and say sorry and stop making excuses?”

Another woman then confronted Mr Farage with a question about his use of the Cameo website, where he is paid to record personalised videos.

She asked: “I was just wondering, the cheapest ones you do are £70. If I paid you £70 now, would you admit that this country would be nothing without a rich history of immigration?”

After that, Mr Farage was asked if his migration plans meant non-UK nationals “are not welcome anymore”, before a woman who gave her name as Dee Williams dismissed his policy of turning back small boats to France as “the D-Day landings in reverse”.

The next question saw Mr Farage asked: “A lot of the language you use about political smear campaigns and the biggest rallies is quite reminiscent to me of Trump in America. Would you say that you’re like-minded characters?”

The penultimate voter to pose a question to Mr Farage said he had voted for Brexit but was “unhappy” about its outcome.

Nigel Farage was grilled over his views on racism by the studio audience - REUTERS

He asked: “You claimed that Brexit would help Britain prosper? Why hasn’t it?”

Finally, Mr Farage was quizzed by an NHS doctor about supply chain issues in the NHS causing medicine shortages.

She asked: “As someone that we have to thank for Brexit, what would you propose that we should do about this?”

Gerry Gay, the editor of BBC’s Question Time said they had applied the same guidelines to audience selection as they had in last week’s debate involving the leaders of the Conservatives, Labour, SNP and Liberal Democrats.

He said that other parties will “also have plenty of representation in our audience too” and that there will be a number of people, “with a range of political sentiments.

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