Government minister Huw Merriman came under withering fire on Tuesday after citing a radio comedy show as evidence of “bias” at BBC News.
Grilled by Kay Burley on Sky News, the railways minister also alleged bias by a BBC reporter he named as “Neil Buchanan”, against the Government’s welfare reforms.
Neil Buchanan presented Art Attack, which was shown on ITV between 1990 and 2007.
The minister appeared to have confused the former children's show host with BBC social affairs correspondent Michael Buchanan who reported on the Universal Credit reforms in 2018 when Mr Merriman had a junior role at the Department for Work and Pensions.
“There was an individual there who would report on it, Neil Buchanan, who I always felt gave one side of the story and not the other side, which was the Government side that I was working really hard on,” the minister said.
Pressed for more evidence of bias, Mr Merriman cited The News Quiz after the latest episode of the satirical Radio 4 show on Friday evening.
“I was driving from my constituency office to home. For 10 minutes, all I heard - and it wasn't satirical - it was just diatribe against Conservatives, not the Government,” he said.
“And I did listen to that and think for goodness sake, where is the balance in that? So yes, I'm afraid to say despite the fact that I've always been a big supporter of the BBC, that struck me as completely biased."
Ms Burley pressed the point that the programme is comedy, not news. Mr Merriman replied: “I love it when politicians get lampooned, but that was the whole point. There wasn't actually anything in it in that particular regard, which struck me as being sort of amusing.”
day two of Tory ministers embarrassing themselves on Kay Burley, as Huw Merriman doesn’t understand Radio 4’s News Quiz is a comedy show, not the news pic.twitter.com/mt5ygEFJJJ
— Toby Earle 🇺🇦 Threads tobyontv (@TobyonTV) January 23, 2024
There was no immediate comment from the BBC. Rishi Sunak's official spokesman declined to repeat the line of attack on the named reporter, but restated that allegations of bias against the broadcaster have been increasing from the public.
Mr Merriman's allegations came after Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer struggled to give Ms Burley specific evidence on Monday to prove Government claims that BBC News is guilty of bias.
The Government says regulator Ofcom could gain enforcement action over BBC News website articles if it feels they do not meet relevant broadcast standards.
Commentators on social media responded to Mr Merriman with scorn including two guests from Friday's edition of The News Quiz - Robin Morgan and Ayesha Hazarika.
Times Radio presenter Ms Hazarika, a former Labour adviser, said on X (formerly Twitter): "Last week (Labour leader Keir) Starmer had the piss ripped out of him. And if he wins, that will happen on a weekly basis. That’s how it works."
Former Labour Home Secretary Jacqui Smith tweeted: "Dear @HuwMerriman Please be assured that the News Quiz absolutely monstered me when I was in government."
Former England rugby player Brian Moore commented: “The News Quiz is the only example that two Tory Ministers have been able to name in their allegations of BBC bias.
“They've had two days to look at this and a satirical comedy radio excerpt is the best they can come up with. Pitiful.”
Hat Trick, the independent producers of BBC TV's Have I Got News For You, also ridiculed Mr Merriman's case of mistaken identity.
They said Ian Hislop, Paul Merton and guest host Alexander Armstrong would not be commenting - over a photo of the cast of 1990s children's game show Fun House.
