Copy of letter sent to BBC Complaints dept about Daily Politics acting as Tory stooges.
BBC Complaints
PO Box 1922
Darlington
DL3 0UR
7th January 2016
Dear Sir or Madam
I am writing to put on record the disgust I feel about the way the Daily Politics show (6/1/16) ‘persuaded’ a Labour Shadow Minister to resign on air - 5 minutes before PMQs.
The since deleted blog from Andrew Alexander, Output Editor, Daily and Sunday Politics, says it all. The triumphant tone at the end is particularly disturbing. This could not have been orchestrated better from Tory Central Office.
Laura Kuenssberg should really consider her position. As a political correspondent for the BBC her job is to report the news - not make it. There have been complaints about her being biased for some time. Sadly this confirms it.
Just in case you didn’t get to see the deleted blog, here it is:-
Blog cached by Google from BBC website
Wednesday is always an important day for the Daily Politics because we carry Prime Minister's Questions live, which brings with it our biggest audience of the week and, we hope, a decent story.
As I arrived at Millbank at 7am it was clear that Jeremy Corbyn's cabinet reshuffle, which had ended before 1am, was going to dominate at Westminster.
When the programme editor phoned in we agreed that in addition to covering other major stories, including the junior doctors' strike, fallout from the reshuffle was likely to continue throughout the morning and this was a story where we could make an impact.
When the producers arrived at 8am they began putting out texts and calls to Labour MPs we thought were likely to react strongly to the sacking of several shadow ministers for "disloyalty".
Just before 9am we learned from Laura Kuenssberg, who comes on the programme every Wednesday ahead of PMQs, that she was speaking to one junior shadow minister who was considering resigning. I wonder, mused our presenter Andrew Neil, if they would consider doing it live on the show?
The question was put to Laura, who thought it was a great idea. Considering it a long shot we carried on the usual work of building the show, and continued speaking to Labour MPs who were confirming reports of a string of shadow ministers considering their positions.
Within the hour we heard that Laura had sealed the deal: the shadow foreign minister Stephen Doughty would resign live in the studio.
Although he himself would probably acknowledge he isn't a household name, we knew his resignation just before PMQs would be a dramatic moment with big political impact. We took the presenters aside to brief them on the interview while our colleagues on the news desk arranged for a camera crew to film him and Laura arriving in the studio for the TV news packages.
There's always a bit of nervous energy in the studio and the gallery just before we go on air at 11.30am, but I'd say it was a notch higher than usual this week. By this point we weren’t worried about someone else getting the story as we had Stephen Doughty safely in our green room. Our only fear was that he might pull his punches when the moment came.
When it did, with about five minutes to go before PMQs, he was precise, measured and quietly devastating – telling Andrew that “I’ve just written to Jeremy Corbyn to resign from the front bench” and accusing Mr Corbyn’s team of “unpleasant operations” and telling “lies”.
As Andrew Neil handed from the studio to the Commons chamber we took a moment to watch the story ripple out across news outlets and social media. Within minutes we heard David Cameron refer to the resignation during his exchanges with Jeremy Corbyn.
During our regular debrief after coming off air at 1pm we agreed our job is always most enjoyable when a big story is breaking - but even more so when it’s breaking on the programme. (my emphases)
Andrew Alexander, Output Editor, Daily and Sunday Politics.
At a time when the BBC is facing a potential existential crisis at the hands of a Murdoch supporting government this was appalling judgement. It is not the job of a national broadcaster to do the Tory party’s bidding. Report, analyse, comment but do not stir. The triumphant tone at the end - allied to the timing - just before PMQs - so Cameron could use it to score party political points over Labour, confirmed the BBC as biased towards the Tories. Rather than hugging yourselves with glee, someone with an overview should have been thinking the situation through a lot more.
Deeply shocking. Very sad.
One final thought. Did James Harding, who is Head of News, have anything to do with this? As an ex-Murdoch editor he is not trusted by those of us who care about these things.
Yours etc
