Complaint
The absence of a spokesperson for Reform UK from a panel on this programme prompted a complaint from a viewer, who argued it ignored the fact Reform UK was outperforming the Greens and the Liberal Democrats in the polls at the time. 聽The ECU considered this against the Editorial Guidelines on impartiality.聽
Outcome
The Guidelines make clear that impartiality is resistant to simple quantification. 聽During election periods there are additional requirements on broadcasters but the starting point is not current polling, or trends in support, but votes cast in previous equivalent elections.聽 Reform UK, as a new political party, did not feature in either the 2017 or the 2019 elections but even if it had, and had attracted significant support, that would not necessarily confer a right to a place on a round table discussion of this kind. 聽The ECU noted, however, that Reform UK did appear on Politics Live and elsewhere on the 大象传媒, on several occasions during the course of the campaign.
Not Upheld