BBC Lefty Luvvies and Reform ffs
Hardly lefty luvvies. The complete opposite in fact:
After the BBC took Gary Lineker off air for his comments, many on the left accused the BBC of double standards, citing examples such as the fact Alan Sugar (who stars in the BBC’s The Apprentice) faced no repercussions after posting a clearly political tweet showing Jeremy Corbyn next to Hitler in 2018.
In response to the Gary Lineker saga, the Shadow Secretary for Culture, Lucy Powell
said it “raised serious questions about the government’s role in upholding BBC impartiality” and that “the BBC capitulated to a Tory cancel campaign, orchestrated by Ministers and Conservative Members with their friends in the press”.
The BBC also has a long history of Conservative ties to the top jobs at the Corporation: former Conservative Cabinet Minister, Chris Patten, was Chairman of the BBC Trust from 2011-14; former chairman of the right-of-centre magazine
The Spectator, Andrew Neil, hosted two of its leading politics programmes; and the current BBC Director General, Tim Davie, had previously been involved with the Hammersmith and Fulham Conservative Association and had once been a candidate for the local council but failed to be elected.
Perhaps the most concerning tie between the BBC and the right was through the BBC’s former chairman, Richard Sharp. A cross-party committee of MPs
found the BBC chair, who is responsible for maintaining the independence of the BBC, made “significant errors of judgement” by facilitating an £800,000 loan guarantee for Boris Johnson while he was Prime Minister. Mr Sharp is also a major Conservative party donor who was on the board of the conservative think tank, the Centre for Policy Studies. Ms Powell accused the government of “serious damage” to the reputation of the BBC by appointing Mr Sharp.