BBC election debate slammed as ‘ridiculously biased’ as stunned viewers react with anger as audience jeer every time Jeremy Corbyn is criticised
VIEWERS slammed last night's BBC Election Debate as "ridiculously biased" and reacted with anger after the audience jeered every time Jeremy Corbyn was criticised.
Senior politicians joined people on Twitter to claim the seven-way showdown filmed in Cambridge was so stacked to the left it was ";laughable".
Social media users immediately complained about the balance of the audience, who clapped and cheered points made by the Labour leader - while Home Secretary Amber Rudd and Ukip leader Paul Nuttall received a frosty reception.
Things got so bad Mr Nuttall tweeted afterwards: "Enjoyed tonight's debate particularly having the chance to speak to [hard-Left group] Momentum … sorry I meant the audience."
And former Cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith said: “Obviously there are questions for the BBC to answer … It's quite clear there was an anti-Tory bias in the audience, which wasn't there in the Channel 4 programme on Monday.”
While people at home voiced their unhappiness, with Warren Allsworth writing: "BBC. This is not good enough. As a middle ground voter even I can see that this audience is so biased to the left it's laughable."
But last night the BBC insisted they had used polling company ComRes "to recruit an audience that is representative of the country demographically and politically".
They claimed the audience was balanced between "age; gender; ethnicity; socio-economic; party politics; how they voted in EU referendum; and some undecided voters".
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While many of those tweeting about it appeared convinced of the bias, others defended the BBC.
One person posted: "People complaining the BBC is biased towards Corbz because the audience is applauding him. U wot m8?"
And the Shadow International Trade Secretary Barry Gardiner insisted the audience was "balanced", adding it was "illegitimate to suggest otherwise".
But after even the BBC presenter Mishal Husain was heckled by the audience for reminding Mr Corbyn of his car crash Woman’s Hour interview, political commentators pointed out the obvious bias.
George Eaton, political editor of the left-leaning New Statesman magazine, tweeted: “This feels like the most Left-wing audience in any TV debate.”
And the Tory grandee Sir Nicholas Soames said the reaction of the audience vindicated Theresa May's decision to send Ms Rudd in her place/
He said the Prime Minister was “absolutely right not to attend debate with typically rigged audience by BBC”.
In the 2015 General Election the BBC came under fire with accusations of an anti-Tory bias, after it emerged more than half of audience members for a leaders debate were left-leaning voters.
Last night the former Ukip leader Nigel Farage said: “This is deja vu. In 2015 I called out the BBC audience for being hard-Left-wing. It's even worse this time.”
Today the Labour leader made a surprise last-minute announcement that he would take part in this evening's seven-way showdown in Cambridge.
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