The BBC is set to apologise for the misleading editing of a Donald Trump speech it featured in the Panorama documentary ‘Trump: A Second Chance?’. The documentary spliced together different segments of Trump’s speech to make it look like he said he would walk to the US Capitol with them to ‘fight like hell’. Speaking to Laura Kuenssberg, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said there were a number of ‘serious allegations’ against the BBC, the most significant of which is that there is ‘systemic bias in the way that difficult issues are reported’. Nandy said that the language used by the BBC in its reporting is ‘entirely inconsistent’, and it is often left to individual journalists to make decisions. The culture secretary admitted she was worried that the blurring of factual news with polemic and opinion was creating an environment where people ‘can’t trust what they see’, and criticised Ofcom for not taking action against ‘politicians presenting the news’. Kuenssberg noted that this doesn’t occur on the BBC, and asked if Nandy had confidence in BBC Director General Tim Davie. Nandy said she did trust that Davie is ‘treating this with the seriousness it demands’.
Lisa Nandy: ‘Even one is too many’
A string of high-profile cases of accidentally released prisoners put Justice Secretary David Lammy under pressure at PMQs this week, who repeatedly evaded answering whether any more instances had occurred. This morning, on Sky News, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy admitted that the number of prisoners released erroneously had increased from an average of 17 a month under the previous government, to 22 a month under Labour. Nandy said the situation was ‘completely unacceptable’, and that ‘even one is too many’. She said Labour had inherited a broken prison system, and that the government had appointed Dame Lynne Owens to look at the issue, starting with reforming the ‘antiquated paper-based system… developed in the 1980s that is still being used’.
Lisa Nandy: ‘I take full responsibility for it’
Lisa Nandy has also had to apologise to Keir Starmer after an inquiry found she had failed to report that David Kogan, who she picked for the new football regulator role, had donated to her leadership campaign in 2020. On the BBC this morning, Nandy told Kuenssberg that the fact Kogan was a Labour donor was discussed at his interview, but not ‘that he donated specifically to me because I didn’t know about that’. Nandy added, ‘as soon as I did find out… I chose to declare it and I recused myself from the process’. Kuenssberg suggested that the Conservatives would describe the situation as ‘cronyism’, and argued that the process was ‘full of mistakes, whether they were inadvertent or not’. Nandy admitted her department ‘didn’t meet the highest standards’, and said she had unreservedly apologised.
UK military equipment sent to Belgium to help defend against suspected Russian drones
New Chief of the Defence Staff Sir Ricard Knighton spoke to Laura Kuenssberg before he went to attend the Remembrance Sunday service at the Cenotaph. Kuenssberg asked about the threat of Russia outside of its invasion of Ukraine. Knighton noted that Russia had killed people on British soil, and said the UK had to strengthen itself against ‘hybrid warfare’, such as cyber attacks or in space. Kuenssberg asked about Belgium, which had to close an airport this week because of suspected Russian drones. Knighton said that the UK had deployed military equipment to help defend Belgium against further incursions, but pointed out that the Belgians weren’t yet sure where the drones had come from.
Zack Polanski: ‘Keir Starmer is not a man that I would be willing to work with’
With Green Party membership numbers continuing to rise, Trevor Phillips asked party leader Zack Polanski if he would consider an alliance with Labour to ‘defeat Reform’. Polanski said that polls showed that ‘the majority of the population have completely lost trust in Keir Starmer’, and accused Starmer of running ‘on the coattails of Jeremy Corbyn’ but then ditching ‘every single pledge’ before he came to power. Phillips pointed out that division on the left might help Reform win. Polanski said that a recent poll showed the Green Party ahead of Labour, and suggested Phillips should be asking Starmer whether he would stand aside to make sure Nigel Farage didn’t succeed. However, Polanski opened the door to working with a different Labour leader, saying it depends who it is.
James Cartlidge: ‘Labour has lost control of public spending’
Speaking on GB News, Shadow Defence Secretary James Cartlidge said he was proud of the Conservative government’s commitment to stand by Ukraine under Boris Johnson. He noted that government spending on defence has fallen year on year since 1985, and argued that Labour should increase the budget to 3% of GDP this parliament, because ‘the threat is now’. Cartlidge said he recognised that achieving that amount would require tough decisions, and claimed Labour had ‘bottled’ its commitment to reform welfare, arguing that the defence budget had to come from reducing the benefit bill.
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