GB News host Nigel Farage has responded to the BBC being forced to issue an apology to Reform UK after the broadcaster labeled the populist party "far-right".
An article uploaded to the BBC's website commented just days after ex-Tory MP Lee Anderson announced his defection to the political party. The broadcaster removed the wording and took "full responsibility" for the "error."'
The BBC also issued its apology claiming that it fell short of its "editorial standards".
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In a statement, the BBC said: "In an article about the Liberal Democrats’ spring conference we wrongly described the political party Reform UK as far-right when referring to polling.
Nigel Farage shared his opinion on the apology
GB News
"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."
Speaking to Patrick Christys on GB News, Farage said: "I understand that Richard Tice had to go to law to get this corrected, but corrected it has been. Let's hope that no other media outlets make the same mistake."
Patrick asked: "Do you think there is more of a rush to call people far right than far left?"
The BBC removed the wording from its website
GETTY/BBCNigel said: "According to the BBC, almost everybody's far right, aren't they? Any new party that rises up or a new government that gets elected gets called far right? We never hear the phrase far left."
Reform UK leader Richard Tice labelled the remarks as "defamatory and libelous", adding lawyers was in touch with the broadcaster.
He added: “The BBC has apologised for the news website referring to Reform UK as 'far right’ following an intervention from my lawyers.“
"My lawyers are also in touch with other news organisations who repeated the BBC line.
“To be clear, I view this as defamatory and libellous.”
Richard Tice has led Reform since 2021PAIf elected Reform has promised to scrap BBC's licence fee, which currently stands at £159 per year but will increase by £10.50 in April.
The pre-election manifesto revealed by Reform at its spring conference reads: “The out-of-touch, wasteful BBC is institutionally biased.
"The TV licence is taxation without representation. In a world of on-demand TV, people should be free to choose.”
Tice has regularly railed against the BBC and claimed it is “biased” against figures on the Right, calling for Newsnight, its flagship political programme, to be scrapped.
GB News, which has been targeted by a far-left advertising boycott since before it even launched, recently announced a membership scheme to allow viewers who want to support the channel to do so directly.
