THE BBC has been accused of “routinely and deliberately” ignoring the SNP after cutting two Ian Blackford speeches from their coverage of yesterday’s key Brexit vote.
The first incident saw the state broadcaster’s 24-hour news channel show Theresa May’s speech in full, along with the many interventions, before doing the same with Jeremy Corbyn. After the Labour leader, the BBC cut away for a series of interviews.
MPs were debating ahead of the meaningful vote on the Prime Minister’s revised Brexit deal.
The coverage then included discussions with the DUP’s EU spokesman Sammy Wilson, Georgina Wright from the Institute for Government, Jacob Rees-Mogg, and Tory MP Daniel Kawczynski. During this time the SNP’s leader at Westminster started to deliver his response. A spokesman for the BBC said the speech had been broadcast in full on BBC Parliament and a wide range of voices were heard during its coverage.
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The second Blackford speech to be cut from the BBC news channel – in an act reminiscent of their coverage of the last meaningful vote – happened just after MPs had inflicted another humiliating defeat on the Prime Minister.
Again May and Corbyn’s responses were shown in full. Then, as the Speaker of the House, John Bercow, called on Blackford to speak, the coverage cut away to presenter Andrew Neil. Afterwards, the BBC News coverage played a 17-second clip from Blackford’s response and later interviewed him.
Referring to a review currently being carried out by Ofcom into the BBC’s news and current affairs output, the SNP’s depute leader Keith Brown, above, said it was “no wonder the BBC bosses are under scrutiny” for “continually and consistently” marginalising Scotland.
Ofcom is expected to publish the findings of its review in the autumn.
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Brown said: “The BBC’s The BBC routinely and deliberately ignores the SNP. It is ridiculous that Ian Blackford is treated this way. The corporation’s obsession with the Westminster bubble means they continually and consistently marginalise Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
“The time for apologies is over, the BBC needs root and branch reform of its news operation and we welcome Ofcom’s intervention.”
A BBC spokesman said: “Mr Blackford’s speech was broadcast in full on BBC Parliament and parts were shown on BBC One and the news channel during our BBC News Brexit Special.
“A broad range of voices appeared on our coverage across various platforms throughout the day – including Stephen Gethins [the SNP spokesman on International Affairs Europe] on the BBC news channel – in what was a fast paced breaking news story”.
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