BBC Newsnight has been called out on air by a former presenter after interviewing an anti-Muslim "extremist".
Matthew Stadlen – who used to present and produce TV shows for the BBC – said on Newsnight he was “concerned” about Douglas Murray being given airtime on the programme, adding his views were "repulsive".
The assistant editor of the Spectator appeared on the programme on Wednesday night despite previously accusing former first minister Humza Yousaf of having “infiltrated” the country’s political system.
Murray has been vocally anti-Islam and said that Europe is “committing suicide” by allowing non-European immigration into the bloc.
In a clip shared on Twitter/X by Yousaf himself, Stadlen called out the fact Murray was given an eight-minute interview on the prime time programme.
Stadlen said he did not "criticise" the BBC for doing the interview, but highlighted his concerns over "extremist" views becoming acceptable in mainstream media coverage.
He said to presenter Nicholas Watt: "Douglas Murray is a man who has said of Humza Yousaf, who was the first minister of Scotland, that he had infiltrated the British political system.
"Humza Yousaf is someone who was born in Britain, born in Scotland.
Calling out Douglas Murray’s extreme views on Newsnight pic.twitter.com/H5pfKN4sKp
— Matthew Stadlen (@MatthewStadlen) April 16, 2025
"This man is an extremist in my view and the Overton window which we talked about earlier has shifted so significantly – listen I don't criticise Newsnight for doing it – that has been given an eight-minute interview on prime BBC television and that is concerning because more and more people it seems to me share his repulsive views.
"Imagine just for a moment being one of the millions of British Muslims, law-abiding British Muslims, watching him say those things."
The Overton window is the range of subjects and arguments deemed politically acceptable to the mainstream population at a given time.
In a video podcast with The Rubin Report – a conservative US political talk show – in 2023, Murray took aim at Yousaf, particularly his response to the crisis in Gaza.
“He’s married to a Palestinian,” Murray told the interviewer, before describing Yousaf's wife Nadia El-Nakla as a “nasty piece of work”.
“Humza Yousaf, as far as I can see, is not the First Minister of Scotland,” he says.
“He’s become the First Minister of Gaza, or an ambassador for Gaza, or something like that.”
He went on: “But people like Humza Yousaf, I say it carefully, have infiltrated our system.
"He does not seem to be much bothered by the situation of the Scottish people, or the people of Glasgow who have one of the lowest life expectancies not just in Britain but anywhere in Europe."
