Government minister Huw Merriman says the BBC 'is biased'
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00:00 Is the BBC biased?
00:02 Well, I used to chair the all-party parliamentary group for the BBC,
00:05 so I've always been a friend of the BBC.
00:07 But let me give you an example. I know that you were searching for them yesterday.
00:10 I was listening to the news quiz, which is on Radio 4 at 6.30 on Friday.
00:13 I was driving from my constituency office to the home.
00:15 For ten minutes, all I heard, and it wasn't satirical,
00:19 it was just diatribe against Conservatives, not the government.
00:22 And I did listen to that and think, for goodness sake, where is the balance in that?
00:26 So, yes, I'm afraid to say, despite the fact that I've always been a big supporter of the BBC,
00:30 that struck me as completely biased.
00:32 OK, you understand that a news quiz is comedy and nothing to do with actual news.
00:36 There was nothing in that ten minutes that was remotely...
00:38 But you do understand that it's not actual news.
00:40 Of course, I would be the first one. I love it when politicians get lampooned.
00:43 But that was the whole point.
00:45 There wasn't actually anything in it in that particular regard,
00:48 which struck me as being sort of amusing.
00:50 It was actually just more the diatribe. It may not have been the news quiz,
00:53 but I did listen to it on a Friday and, as I say, it didn't strike me,
00:57 A, as being particularly satirical.
00:59 So you do think they're biased?
01:01 Well, that was just... Listen to the first ten minutes.
01:04 I'd challenge any of your audience to it.
01:06 Do you think BBC News is biased?
01:08 It was totally biased and it was just completely beyond...
01:10 Do you think BBC News is biased?
01:12 I think there are times when the BBC could do better
01:14 and when I chaired the all-party parliamentary group,
01:17 then I felt that the BBC could do better.
01:19 Give me examples.
01:21 Some of its content when it comes to social affairs,
01:24 and I felt this when I used to work for the Department of Work and Pensions,
01:27 didn't necessarily give two sides of the story.
01:29 Give me examples.
01:31 I have found examples in there.
01:33 So that was... Again, I don't want to be personal.
01:36 Now, I know you've had 24 hours to think about it,
01:39 so give me... You must have got specific examples
01:41 of when BBC News has been biased. Give me one.
01:43 So when I worked at the Department for Work and Pensions
01:46 and I was working on Universal Credit,
01:48 there was an individual there who would report on it.
01:50 Neil Buchanan, who I always felt gave one side of the story
01:53 and not the other side, which was the government side,
01:55 that I was working really hard on, because I believed in Universal Credit.
01:58 So that would be my working example when I worked there.
02:00 We have some substance that we can now go back to them on.