Nigel Farage BLASTS mainstream media election bias against Reform UK: 'BBC was a political actor!'

Nigel Farage BLASTS mainstream media election bias against Reform UK: 'BBC was a political actor!'

WATCH NOW: Nigel Farage blasts mainstream broadcasters following General Election victory

GB News
Georgia Pearce

By Georgia Pearce


Published: 09/07/2024

- 08:13

Updated: 09/07/2024

- 09:50

The Reform UK leader revealed he is 'already planning county council elections' following his success in Clacton

Nigel Farage has launched a fresh attack on mainstream broadcasters following his party's election success, as he accused the BBC of being "political actors" during his campaign.

The Reform UK leader received over four million votes in last week's General Election, winning five seats in Parliament including in his own constituency of Clacton.


However, throughout his short but powerful campaign, the BBC landed themselves in hot water after "snubbing" Farage from the main leadership debate which was broadcast. As a result, the channel issued an on-air apology to the party leader.

Speaking exclusively to GB News, Farage blasted the mainstream broadcasters for their "political objectives" in blocking Reform from getting as much coverage as the Conservatives and Labour.

GB News members can watch the full extended interview with Nigel Farage here.

Nigel Farage

Nigel Farage has hit out at 'political actors' BBC for their coverage of Reform UK during the election campaign

GB News

Sitting down with GB News reporter Charlie Peters, Farage said: "The political establishment wants to stop us. The political establishment do not want change.

"Rishi gives way to Keir, which is just a change in middle management. Nothing radically different is going to happen, things will just get a little bit worse."

Noting the BBC's coverage of the Reform UK campaign and Channel 4 News's undercover investigation, Farage claimed they "did everything to try and stop us".

He fumed: "If you look at the story selection from the BBC, things that activists said became major news stories. Did that happen with the Labour Party under Corbyn? Well, we did see some of the antisemitism, but frankly, not that much of it.

Nigel Farage

The Reform UK leader appeared on BBC's Question Time Leader's Special in late June

PA

"The Channel Four stitch up over the ‘so called racist campaigner’. I mean, [he was] the biggest fraud I've ever seen. The guy's an actor, a posh actor, who turned up in our office sounding like Alf Garner. I mean, the whole thing was a stitch up."

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Following the party's surprising success, the Reform UK leader claimed the party still "has no support from any national newspaper".

Farage told GB News: "I could moan and moan and moan, but there isn't much point. The broadcasters, including GB News, were very limited by Ofcom in terms of the coverage they could actually give us, and the BBC acted as a political actor right throughout.

"My first interview on the BBC, I did a speech from Dover about the boats and why Labour's plan wouldn't work, and the new BBC News channel took it live. Midway through, they cut off, and the presenter said, ‘Well, there's Nigel Farage again using his customary inflammatory language'. Just extraordinary."

Acknowledging the BBC's on-air apology, Farage said although they apologised, it was "clear they had a political objective" against his campaign.

Nigel Farage

Farage revealed he is 'already planning county council elections' following his success in Clacton

GB News

Farage explained: "I actually got an on-air apology, but that's not the point. It was clear from the start but the BBC had a political objective.

"This ran right through the Russia stuff, where the fact that I predicted 10 years ago what would happen when I was right about Ukraine suddenly becomes, I’m a Putin supporter.

"Some of this stuff's always going to happen. It's politics, people get very tribal, but the extent of the bashing was extraordinary."

Looking to the future of Reform and their impact on British politics with their seats in Parliament, Farage said: "I'm already planning county council elections next year. We are very conscious now of the potential we have with Labour voters.

"The whole establishment knows that we're here. I genuinely think we're in a very, very strong position. Our membership is booming. We've got more members now than I ever had in UKIP, for example, even when that was a major party, going back a decade."

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