REFORM have launched a fresh attack on the BBC for putting illegal migrants in the Question Time audience.
The party’s policy chief Zia Yusuf said he “could not believe” the Corporation had invited two small boat arrivals to participate in the flagship show where he was a panellist.
Last night’s episode from Dover saw an Afghan and Iranian man put questions to the politicians.
Mr Yusuf hit out: “It is a scandal that licence fee money is being paid to bring to air an ‘immigration special’ where people who literally broke into this country are getting to air their views.
“What’s next? On Budget day, is the BBC going to bring us the viewpoint of tax evaders? I don’t know where we go from here.”
Reform’s chairman David Bull added: “The BBC is now platforming people who broke into this country illegally. Outrageous.
“Both illegal immigration and the national broadcaster are completely out of control.”
The Afghan man revealed on the show he had his asylum claim rejected by six countries before making his way across the Channel.
And the Iranian migrant launched into an impassioned defence of the European Convention of Human Rights.
Mr Yusuf said: “How on earth can it be deemed appropriate that people who broke into this country illegally should have a seat at the table?”
It deepens the row between Reform and the BBC after Nigel Farage yesterday slammed the broadcaster over “double standards” after being grilled about historic antisemitism claims.
The Reform UK boss said the broadcaster had no right to quiz him over teenage remarks while its own output from that era would now be judged unacceptable.
The row flared after a Radio 4 exchange in which Reform’s Deputy Leader Richard Tice was suddenly steered from a discussion about Labour acting like “dictators” onto allegations about Mr Farage’s “relationship with Hitler”.
The claims centre on accounts from former classmate Peter Ettedgui – now a BAFTA-winning director – who says a teenage Mr Farage told him “Hitler was right” and “gas them”, with around 20 contemporaries reportedly backing similar allegations.
The BBC then raised the issue again at Mr Farage’s afternoon press conference, triggering his furious tirade.
The Reform UK boss hinted he would boycott the corporation if they did not apologise.
“I’m done with you. Until you apologise, I’m not speaking to you,” fumed Farage.
“I thought this morning‘s performance by one of your lower grade presenters on the Today programme was utterly disgraceful,” he added.
“To frame a question around the Leader of Reform’s relationship with Hitler, which is how she framed it, was despicable, disgusting beyond belief.”
Mr Farage said the BBC’s record made its repeated questioning “astonishingly” hypocritical, adding: “At the time I was alleged to have made these remarks, one of your most popular weekly shows was the black and white minstrels, right?
“The BBC were very happy to use blackface.”
