The second question of the evening, discussion of which occupied about a third of the programme’s duration, was “After recent protests at an asylum seekers’ hotel, would a working asylum system solve the problem?”.  In the ECU’s view it was appropriate that, after explaining that Mr Jenrick was the Immigration Minister, Ms Bruce should have offered him the opportunity to state the Government’s position and then respond to criticisms from other panellists and members of the audience.  Though his contribution to the discussion was consequently longer than those of other panellists, it was not disproportionately so in the context of a Government minister responding to critical comments in a particularly contentious area of policy, and the ECU found no grounds for believing there to have been a breach of the BBC’s standards of impartiality.
Not upheld