Letters – October 2025

‘Making the Political Weather’

Dear Editors,

I recently filed a complaint to the BBC about the ridiculous amount of coverage, and a distinct lack of forensic analysis and questioning of Reform UK, and Nigel Farage in particular, and received the following response:

“BBC News is committed to providing our audiences with fair and impartial coverage of all relevant political parties. Whenever we invite representatives of any political party to take part in our coverage, we are careful to ensure that views are appropriately challenged and analysed, over an appropriate period of time. Our Editorial Guidelines make it clear that: ‘Evidence of past electoral support and current electoral support should be taken into account in making judgements about appropriate levels of coverage and prominence.’

“Traditional voting patterns across Britain have been shifting, providing a challenge to established political parties, especially Labour and the Conservatives. At the 2017 General Election, those two parties combined won more than 80% of the vote – at last year’s General Election, that figure was well below 60%. Current opinion polls put their combined support at nearer 40% across Great Britain.

“During the last year or so, Reform UK (formerly the Brexit Party) appear to have been the main beneficiary of this shift. Our assessments of ‘past electoral support’ include both representation (i.e. how many MPs are elected) and also vote-share (i.e. how many people actually vote for a party overall). Although they have four MPs currently, Reform UK won more than four million votes in the 2024 General Election, making them the third-largest party in terms of vote share (more than 14%), behind Labour and the Conservatives, but ahead of the Liberal Democrats, who nevertheless returned more than 70 MPs.

“In the 2025 English local elections in May, Reform UK won a majority of 10 councils plus two mayoral contests, securing more votes across England than any other party (an estimated national share of above 30%). On the same day, Reform UK won a parliamentary by-election in Runcorn and Helsby, with nearly 39% of the vote in that constituency.

“Assessing ‘current electoral support’ includes an obligation to take into account legitimate opinion polls, especially where there are robust and consistent trends (as measured by voting intention polls conducted by members of the British Polling Council). All such surveys fully conducted since the May elections (a total of more than 90 consecutive polls) indicate that Reform UK are ahead of all other parties across Britain; during August, the party’s polling average across 17 opinion polls, from a range of companies, increased to 30%, ahead of Labour (21%), the Conservatives (18%), the Liberal Democrats (14%), and the Green Party (9%).

“Recently, Reform UK announced its immigration strategy and we considered many people who had voted for the party (or say they intend voting for it) would be interested in seeing the proposals. However, BBC News hasn’t simply reported on the strategy, we have also provided political analysis, scrutinised its spokespeople, and heard from many individuals and parties across the political spectrum, including the Government, providing a wide range of views on the issue.

“With regards to Nigel Farage, he is an elected MP and leader of a political party with clear evidence of significant electoral support. Many political analysts across the media, with different political perspectives, report that Reform UK are ‘making the political weather’ – in other words, the reactions and policies of the other political parties can only be properly understood in the context of knowing what is happening with Reform UK and its increased level of support.

“We give careful consideration to ensuring any story concerning Mr Farage and Reform UK are given proportionate and appropriate coverage on our networks and online.”

By this definition/justification, figures such as Hitler would have received a similar treatment, would they not? Surely the task of the BBC (‘fair and impartial coverage’, in its own words) should involve a forensic level of questioning and the holding to account of any and every politician, including Farage? If the BBC receives taxpayer funding then should the content be dictated by opinion polls, which are not entirely accurate?