Nigel Farage today claimed that “what the BBC did was election interference”, in reference to the editing of a speech made by Donald Trump on 6 January 2021, the day of the Capitol riot. He went on to argue that “the BBC has been institutionally biased for decades.”

Today’s intervention by the Reform UK leader followed the publication of leaked internal memos which claimed the BBC’s Panorama had edited parts of Trump’s speech together, so that he appeared to explicitly encourage the disorder after he lost the 2020 presidential election. In response, BBC Director General Tim Davie and BBC News CEO Deborah Harness stepped down from their positions yesterday evening.

Trump reacted to the resignations on Truth Social, saying the two executives were “quitting/FIRED, because they were caught ‘doctoring’ my very good (PERFECT!) speech of January 6th”. This afternoon, he sent a letter to BBC threatening legal action. Farage also claimed today that Trump had asked him on Friday, referring to the BBC scandal, “is this how you treat your best ally?”

Later during the press conference held today in Westminster, Farage said that the BBC needed to be “slimmed down” and that “the licence fee, as it is, cannot survive.” In the party’s manifesto ahead of last year’s general election, Reform pledged to scrap the license fee, claiming it was “taxation without representation” and that the Corporation was “institutionally biased”. The Clacton MP today echoed these comments, stating that the BBC has been “institutionally biased for decades” and suggesting that this was evident in its coverage of immigration, climate change, Gaza and Trump.

Besides the Panorama editing of Trump’s speech, the leaked memos also suggested that there were “systemic problems” of bias in BBC Arabic’s coverage of the Israel-Gaza war, and that coverage of trans issues had been effectively “censored” by LGBT reporters promoting a pro-trans agenda.

Earlier this afternoon, BBC Chair Samir Shah said that the Panorama episode was “an error of judgement”, accepting that the way the documentary had been edited suggested Trump had given a direct call for violence.

Today, a Downing Street spokesperson told UnHerd that “we support a strong independent BBC and in an age of disinformation, the argument for a robust impartial British news service is stronger than ever.” They added: “it’s important that trust is maintained and that errors are corrected; and for any public service broadcaster, accountability and trust are key.”

The spokesperson also stated that the Government is “preparing for the upcoming Charter Review, which we expect to launch in due course and will consider a range of issues”, as the BBC faces more questions about the long-term justification for the license fee.