Brexit leader Nigel Farage has launched a scathing attack on the BBC, decrying Andrew Marr’s line of questioning of him during an interview on Sunday.
Speaking during an interview with London-based talk radio LBC, Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage condemned BBC interviewer Marr as launching “ad hominem” attacks, and of being “factually wrong” about claims that Mr Farage never supported a ‘no-deal’ Brexit during the referendum campaign.
Comparing the BBC’s interviewer negatively with the questions he was put by LBC on the same day — which he characterised as “legitimate, sensible stuff” about the Brexit party itself rather than himself — Farage questioned whether or not the public broadcaster was fit for purpose.
He said: “This [the BBC] is not a commercial organisation. It’s a public service broadcaster that we all pay money for. We deserve better,” adding: “do we need the BBC anymore? I’m not sure”.
Claiming the BBC had been cutting out people from the Brexit Party in their programmes, and that he’d had to “battle like crazy” to get on Question Time, Mr Farage reflected nevertheless that he’d “managed to top the polls without the BBC”.
In February, Mr Farage branded the BBC the ‘Biased Brussels Corporation” after it emerged that the EU had received £4 million in EU funding.
As it stands, Mr Farage’s Brexit Party is leading the polls ahead of the EU elections despite their claimed lack of coverage on the BBC and the hostile reception Mr Farage received on Andrew Marr’s show. The latest YouGov poll shows the Brexit Party surging ahead on 34 per cent, more than double second place Labour’s tally of 16 per cent. Meanwhile, the Conservatives have fallen into fifth place on just 10 per cent.