A BBC presenter has been blasted by bosses over her biased interview with the pro-Brexit Wetherspoons supremo.
Sally Bundock has been told she broke “standards of due impartiality” in an on-air spat with Tim Martin, and must not put across her personal views.
She interrupted the pub chain founder a dozen times in the seven-minute discussion on her Business Briefing show.
And she told him that Britain could not simply leave the EU without settling bills, as well as highlighting the dire warnings about the risks to the economy of quitting without an agreement.
At one stage the Leave backer told her: “You don’t want to hear my reply, do you?
“I thought you wanted to interview me! Are you just putting the case for Remain?”
After the interview in March, viewers complained that Miss Bundock was “rude and biased” but the BBC responded: “We’re satisfied that by the end of the interview Mr Martin was able to put across his argument in full.”
Now however the objections have been upheld by the corporation’s more senior Executive Complaints Unit.
It ruled: “It would have been easy for viewers to form the impression that the presenter held a distinct view of her own on Mr Martin’s support for leaving the EU without a deal, and the interview fell short of the BBC’s standards of due impartiality in that respect.”
The statement added: “It has been stressed to the presenter that the way questions are framed should make it clear to the audience that this is for the proper purpose of impartial challenge and that a personal view is not being expressed.”
Meanwhile the fallout from BBC One’s disastrous Tory leadership debate continues.
New figures show a massive 1,035 viewers complained about last week’s show, with most alleging “bias against Boris Johnson” as well as favouring “contributions from the south of England”.
Earlier this week The Sun revealed that the BBC had admitted presenter Emily Maitlis’s style “may not be to everyone’s taste” – then hastily deleted the jibe.
