Broadcasting regulator Ofcom has launched an investigation into David Lammy’s show on LBC over concerns that it broke rules on politicians acting as news presenters.
In a statement, the regulator said it would investigate the shadow foreign secretary’s show on March 29 after receiving more than 50 complaints.
The Labour frontbencher has hosted the Sunday morning show since 2022.
During the show on March 29, Mr Lammy broke the news that DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson had resigned as head of the party after being charged with several historical sexual offences.
Global, the company which operates LBC, has been contacted for comment.
It comes just weeks after Ofcom ruled that three Tory MPs who “acted as newsreaders” across five different episodes while being the lead presenter of their GB News programmes had broken broadcasting rules on due impartiality.
The regulator’s probe involved shows that were presented separately by former Cabinet minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, minister without portfolio Esther McVey and backbencher Philip Davies.
Their breaches involved Sir Jacob talking on May 9 about a verdict involving former US president Donald Trump’s civil trial and Ms McVey and Mr Davies speaking on May 12 about train strikes, the UK economy, a court case involving the Duke of Sussex and a teenager who was being sentenced for terrorism offences.
Ofcom said that because the politicians “acted as newsreaders, news interviewers or news reporters in sequences which clearly constituted news – including reporting breaking news events – without exceptional justification, news was, therefore, not presented with due impartiality”.
It went on: “Politicians have an inherently partial role in society and news content presented by them is likely to be viewed by audiences in light of that perceived bias.
“In our view, the use of politicians to present the news risks undermining the integrity and credibility of regulated broadcast news.”
Also on Monday, Ofcom warned TalkTV following Julia Hartley-Brewer’s heated exchange about the Hamas-Israel war with Palestinian politician Dr Mustafa Barghouti on her show but declined to launch an investigation.
Ofcom said Ms Hartley-Brewer’s remarks “had the potential to be highly offensive to viewers” but due to their “brevity” and “audience expectations of this presenter and programme, which often features provocative viewpoints” did not reach the threshold for a probe.
“While TalkTV’s position is that Ms Hartley-Brewer’s comments were not motivated by Dr Barghouti’s religion or ethnicity, we recognise that many complainants understood them to be so. Given this, the comments had the potential to be highly offensive to viewers, irrespective of the intent of the presenter,” it added.
“We are therefore issuing strong guidance to TalkTV on the need to take greater care to ensure that potentially highly offensive comments are justified by the context in order to comply with the Broadcasting Code. We expect the broadcaster to take this guidance into account in future programming.”
The episode received more than 17,000 complaints.
