A BBC employee shared an image of a convicted Neo-Nazi terrorist doing a Hitler salute and described it as a “Reform salute”, GB News can reveal.
In a leaked message, written in the BBC’s internal messaging service Slack, an employee at the broadcaster compared Nigel Farage’s Reform Party with the Nazis.
A BBC employee wrote on an internal messaging service that the Nazi salute is the 'Reform salute' In response the Deputy Leader of the Reform Party, Richard Tice, called for the employee to be sacked.
Mr Tice told GB News: “This is libellous and the BBC should not tolerate such extremist misinformation from one of their employees on an internal messaging board.”
“The fact such a comment can be made on a BBC messaging service which is available to all staff, including editors and managers, is astonishing.”
“He should be fired for gross misconduct. It is an insult from the BBC to all Reform voters that one of their employees can label us Nazis openly on their work platforms.”
The comment was written during an internal BBC staff discussion about Callum Parslow, a neo-Nazi who was found guilty of attempted murder earlier this month after stabbing an asylum seeker.
A BBC employee posted a link to an article about Parslow’s conviction, and another staffer responded with a picture of the terrorist doing a Nazi salute.
Reform UK Party Leader Nigel Farage delivers a speech during a rally at the NEC in BirminghamREUTERSThe employee wrote a caption above the image, stating: "Here he is doing a Reform salute."
The comment was available to all BBC employees to see on their internal communications service.
Rupert Lowe, a Reform Party MP, said: “The BBC is a disgracefully biased organisation.”
“How many BBC journalists or staff do we estimate voted for Reform? I’d be amazed if it was over 1%. Labour would be 90% plus.”
“We need to defund the organisation, and then these people can spout off about their nonsensical political opinions all they like. Until then, on company time, they can shut up.”
The news comes after GB News revealed a batch of leaked internal BBC comments criticising Donald Trump after his election win, including a message linking him to the Nazis.
“Somehow I knew this was coming and yet I'm still disappointed”, one BBC employee wrote in response to the Republican’s election victory last week.
Another staffer, during a discussion about a Guardian article that claimed Elon Musk’s stock prices increased upon Mr Trump’s election, wrote: “a lot of wealthy German industrialists increased their wealth under the Nazis”.
Connor Tomlinson, a political commentato, said: “Given Reform UK ran a number of Jewish candidates at the last election, with one now controlling candidate selection, to characterise them as a Nazi party is absurd.”
“But it speaks to the deep rot of partisan liberal progressivism in the state broadcaster.”
“The inability by those at the BBC to distinguish between Nigel Farage, Donald Trump, and Adolf Hitler, may explain why Reform's Question Time election special had an audience of activists.”
“Their unique hostility did not represent Reform's eventual 4 million voters, and the BBC fails to understand why British people have reasonable concerns about unprecedented levels of immigration.”
Nigel Farage has vowed to scrap the BBC licence fee after accusing the broadcaster of bias.
During the general election earlier this year, Mr Farage boycotted the BBC following an appearance on Question Time which he said was biased against him.
However, a BBC spokesperson said at the time: “We refute these claims. Last night’s Question Time audience was made up of broadly similar levels of representation from Reform UK and the Green party, with the other parties represented too.
“There were also a number of people, with a range of political views, who were still making up their mind.”
He told GB News during the campaign that the BBC had “behaved like a political actor”.
The BBC has had to apologise to the Reform Party leader on several occasions over its reporting.
In May a BBC presenter apologised to Mr Farage live on air after she said he used “customary inflammatory language” following a speech he gave.
The BBC journalist Geeta Guru-Murthy said on air: “Now, an apology. Earlier today we heard live from Nigel Farage, speaking at that election event we just saw.
“When we came away from his live speech, I used language to describe it which didn’t meet the BBC’s editorial standards on impartiality. I’d like to apologise to Mr Farage and viewers for this.”
In July 2023 the BBC apologised to Mr Farage over inaccurate reporting around the decision of Coutts to close his bank account.
The BBC did not respond to a request for comment.
