Ukip sets lawyers on biased BBC: Furious Farage goes to war over Left-wing debate audience

The move plunges the corporation into a new impartiality row following claims of a Left-wing slant in Thursday’s TV debate.

The BBC’s Director General is being pressed to answer searching questions about the make-up of the audience as opposition leaders including Mr Farage clashed.

In a formal letter to the BBC, party lawyer Andrew Reid has requested details of the company used to select those who were there, how the company was chosen, who at the BBC was involved in the instruction of the company and what research had been done into the ownership of the company and political make-up of its staff.

Mr Farage claimed the audience was “remarkable, even by the Leftwing standards of the BBC”.

Mr Reid, who is also the party treasurer, told the Sunday Express: “I think it is right that the British public are told how the BBC selects its audiences and what safeguards are in place to guard against a loaded audience.”

Last night Mr Farage told the Sunday Express: “There is certainly potential for complaint. I can’t comment on whether there will be a legal complaint because there are precise details about broadcasting legislation, so I will let my lawyer deal with that.”

The audience at the filming of Thursday night’s debate in Westminster repeatedly cheered calls for more public spending and strong defences of immigration.

When the Ukip leader interjected to suggest the audience were prejudiced, they booed him even further.

David Dimbleby, who hosted the debate between the Labour, Ukip, Green, SNP and Plaid Cymru leaders, pointed out that the audience had not been selected by the BBC but by a “reputable polling organisation”, later revealed to be ICM.

The BBC initially refused to disclose the political make-up of the audience but eventually released figures to Express online, which showed that the audience was Left-leaning.

Of the 200-strong audience, about 58 were Conservative or Ukip supporters, while about 102 backed Labour, the Lib Dems, SNP or Plaid Cymru, all Leftist parties. The remaining 40 described themselves as undecided.

The figures mean that just 29 per cent of the total audience were supporters of the Tories or Ukip.

The BBC has also faced a string of accusations of bias from the Tories.

It has been alleged that the Question Time audience is weighted towards Labour and the Tories accused the corporation of “bias” and “systematic exaggeration” after its coverage of the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement last year.

“There is an institutional problem,” Mr Farage told the Sunday Express.

“I have spent several years saying that I think our political class are the problem but my view is changing. I think the media class is perhaps an even bigger problem.

“I would like to see a BBC stripped to the bones. It clearly needs absolutely radical root and branch reform.”

Last night a BBC spokesman said: “Ahead of the debates the broadcasters and the political parties agreed that it was appropriate that a reputable independent polling organisation selected the audience.

“ICM, which also selected the ITV debate audience, recruited an audience based on present polling and past electoral support to give a cross section of political opinion.”

An ICM spokesman said that “orthodox random location selection techniques” were used. The BBC also came under fire for using a  “worm graph” during the debate to take an instant poll of up to 20 voters in the studio.

The worm graphs were used live on the BBC News channel, online and then in the programme immediately following the debate.

Professor Colin Davis, of Bristol University, said the worms can produce as much as a 30 per cent swing in voting intentions.

The professor, who gave evidence to the House of Lords supporting a ban on worm graphs, said the BBC had ignored a recommendation from the Lords Communications Committee to “not include them”.

The BBC spokesman said: “The debate was available without the worm during the main broadcast on BBC One, where the great majority of the audience tuned in.”