Complaint
The programme included an interview with Andrew Bridgen MP, who had recently lost the Conservative whip because of comments about the supposed risks attached to Covid vaccination. The interviewer put to him the question, “Rather than debate it in public, and rather than put out loads of tweets, why don't you take yourself off and speak to the experts at the Department for Health and let them tell you what they think one to one?”. A listener (who had seen the interview on Twitter) complained that the question was biased and impertinent. The ECU considered the complaint in the light of the BBC’s editorial standards of impartiality.
Outcome
The question came in response to Mr Bridgen’s own suggestion of a debate: “Let’s have the debate… in Parliament. Let me bring my experts and let Hancock bring Whitty and Vallance”. The ECU did not consider it impertinent for the interviewer to take up Mr Bridgen’s theme and, insofar as the question suggested he might be better-informed if he consulted such sources before publicly expressing a view, it was in keeping with the strong scientific consensus on the level of risk attached to vaccination, and consistent with the section of the BBC’s Guidelines on impartiality which says “We should seek to achieve ‘due weight’. For example, minority views should not necessarily be given similar prominence or weight to those with more support or to the prevailing consensus”.
Not upheld