BBC criticised for giving Sir Keir Starmer right of reply to PM's 'public information' address

The BBC has sparked a row with the Government by giving Sir Keir Starmer a “right of reply” to the Prime Minister’s televised address on the new covid restrictions.

The Labour leader made his own primetime address to the nation on BBC One, 24 hours after Boris Johnson. It was his second appearance of the night, coming an hour after he appeared on the same channel in a Labour party political broadcast.

According to the BBC, it is standard practice for a Leader of the Opposition to be offered a platform after a major Prime Ministerial statement.

But a Whitehall source said: “It’s a strange move for the BBC to allow a political statement as a counterpoint to the Prime Minister making a public information address during a time of crisis.

“It raises questions for the BBC on why they are allowing Sir Keir Starmer a primetime slot to give a political rebuttal.”

When Boris Johnson made his historic address on March 23 announcing that Britain was going into lockdown, Jeremy Corbyn was still in place as Labour leader. He was not offered a right of reply.

However, after Mr Johnson appeared in a second broadcast on May 10 to set out his “road map” for reopening the country, Sir Keir was invited to give a response.

The BBC pointed to a section of its editorial guidelines covering ministerial broadcasts and Government information. The guidelines read: “In exceptional circumstances, such as a decision to go to war, the BBC may be required to provide time for a broadcast by a UK government minister.

“In such circumstances, it may also be necessary for the BBC to consider whether responses from other political parties are appropriate. The BBC, as broadcaster, has the final say on the broadcast’s acceptability in terms of its compliance with appropriate legal and other standards.”

The BBC said the current pandemic constituted “exceptional circumstances” and pointed to previous instances when the Leader of the Opposition was allowed to give a televised response: Tony Blair on the Docklands bombing in 1996, William Hague on military action in Kosovo in 1999 and Iain Duncan Smith on the Iraq War in 2003.

A BBC spokesman said: “Under the BBC Charter and Agreement, the Government can require the BBC to transmit a ministerial broadcast.  In those circumstances, under its Editorial Guidelines, the BBC has to consider whether to offer other parties the opportunity to respond. There has been a response on every occasion since the Suez crisis, bar one, most recently with Keir Starmer’s response to the Prime Minister’s last broadcast in May.”