A TORY MP claims the BBC has played “unbalanced left-wing party politics” during the Covid-19 crisis after this week’s Panorama investigation into PPE caused outrage.
Andrew Griffith, MP for Arundel and South Downs and a former Number 10 business adviser, retweeted a Media Guido post claiming the investigation was a “party political broadcast”.
The investigation revealed that the UK Government’s pandemic stockpile did not include gowns, visors, swabs and other crucial protective gear when it was set up, with ministers stating that was because advisory committee Nervtag had not recommended securing those items. However the programme reported the group recommended gowns, a highly in-demand PPE item, should be bought in June.
The taxpayer-funded BBC has real questions to answer about its role here. It is not to play unbalanced left-wing party politics during a national crisis. https://t.co/ty8AEtr9si
— Andrew Griffith MP (@griffitha) April 28, 2020
Panorama also found that the UK Government downgraded its guidance on PPE and advised staff to wear less protective aprons and basic masks unless in the most high-risk situations back in March.
Media Guido released a report after the investigation aired, saying the doctors and nurses who had given evidence to the programme were “pro-Corbyn”, had attended Corbyn rallies, had “called for action against the Government” and “anti-Tory”. One of the interviewees had been a Labour candidate.
Reposting the story, Griffith added: “The taxpayer-funded BBC has real questions to answer about its role here. It is not to play unbalanced left-wing party politics during a national crisis.”
READ MORE: Panorama: Westminster failed to stockpile crucial PPE
The post gained 2000 retweets but nearly 5000 replies from furious users.
Many of these replying wanted to know which facts the programme had got wrong to justify the criticism.
Nick Reeves wrote: “Another Tory MP breathing contempt for democracy. It is dictators like Kim Jong-Un and Assad who want journalists to be uncritical sycophants.
Another Tory MP breathing contempt for democracy. It is dictators like Kim Jong-Un and Assad who want journalists to be uncritical sycophants.
— Nick Reeves #FBPE #RuleOfLaw (@nickreeves9876) April 28, 2020
There is a very dangerous current of authoritarianism running through the Tory party.
“There is a very dangerous current of authoritarianism running through the Tory party.”
Another user responded: “How quickly the NHS heroes become 'left wing activists' when they refuse to stay silent on this Governments @COVID failings.”
And Graham Lithgow had a suggestion for why those featured in the programme had no links to the Tories.
He posted: “Has it ever occurred to you that the reason so many workers in the NHS tend to be anti-Tory is maybe because they have day to day, first hand experience of working in an NHS gutted by a decade of Tory rule?
Has it ever occurred to you that the reason so many workers in the NHS tend to be anti-Tory is maybe because they have day to day, first hand experience of working in an NHS gutted by a decade of Tory rule?
— Graham Lithgow (@grahamlithgow) April 28, 2020
Or is that too inconvenient a notion?
“Or is that too inconvenient a notion?”
After the Panorama investigation aired, a Department of Health spokesperson said: “This is an unprecedented global pandemic and we have taken the right steps at the right time to combat it, guided at all times by the best scientific advice.
“The government has been working day and night to battle against coronavirus, delivering a strategy designed at all times to protect our NHS and save lives.”
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