THE BBC has been told it must “stop deceiving viewers” after further controversy over its audience selection.
The broadcaster has said it will consider “additional steps” in its vetting process after a backlash over its Tory leadership debate on Tuesday, Our Next Prime Minister.
Ofcom received 31 complaints about the show, with an imam who has now been suspended from his mosque over alleged anti-Semitic comments made online one of those to ask a question.
SNP depute leader Keith Brown has now told the BBC it should have heeded warnings over its vetting procedures.
It comes after the party’s complaints about the Elgin Question Time were lodged with the BBC’s executive complaints unit, following an insufficient response from producers. The issue could be taken to Ofcom.
Brown said: “We’ve been warning the BBC for months that their vetting procedures are inadequate. Week after week the Question Time audience is riddled with individuals masquerading as members of the public. So this week’s shambles over the Tory leader debate comes as no surprise.
“We believe it is fundamentally dishonest for the BBC to deceive viewers over who is asking the questions.
“Following Question Time last month in Elgin we asked BBC bosses to explain how a former Conservative MSP of 17 years could be allowed to contribute from the audience simply as ‘a member of the public’.
“Our concern is that viewers will lose trust in the BBC if this deception continues. BBC bosses need to get this sorted – they need to be more transparent, not defensive and refuse to admit mistakes.
“Now the BBC has come under pressure from the right-wing press, they claim to be considering new vetting procedures.
“It’s not good enough. There needs to be a root and branch review of BBC vetting procedures, and we’re not going to rest until they get their act together.”
The BBC has stressed that the plans to examine vetting procedures are separate to Question Time, owing to its larger-scale participation and long-standing existing procedures.
On complaints about the Tory debate, a BBC spokesperson said: “This programme was an important contribution to the current political debate. It was watched by a big audience and the candidates to be the next prime minister were asked legitimate questions which our audience will have expected to have answered.
"We have a long history of producing successful debate programmes and this was no different.
“We did, however, adopt a different format for this programme and we will look at whether there are additional steps we might take on vetting and transparency should we repeat it in the future.
“We of course have long-established procedures for programmes that we make on a regular basis, and it is important to remember that a political debate programme involving members of the public will, by its very nature, attract people interested and engaged in issues who may well have been active in politics.
“It would be odd only to have programmes involving the public where everyone agrees with the politics of those they are questioning.”
The reports to Ofcom are said to relate mainly to the show itself, rather than the selection of questions.
As well as being suspended from his mosque, Abdullah Patel was suspended from his role as a deputy head teacher amid controversy over his past comments on Israel.
One tweet said that “every political figure on the Zionist’s payroll is scaring the world about Corbyn”.
Former Labour party candidate Aman Thakar, who also asked a question, has since been suspended from his job as an employment solicitor.
Screenshots taken before Thakar made his Twitter account private showed he once suggested “Hitler’s abuse of the term nationalism is, to me a nationalist, the most harmful part of his legacy”.
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