THE BBC has accepted that it was wrong to broadcast an interview with a Reform UK politician without informing audiences of her political allegiance.
It comes after the national broadcaster showed a clip of June Mummery, who ran for Reform UK in the 2024 General Election and remains their fisheries spokesperson, but presented her only as a concerned businessperson.
The incident happened in the wake of the UK Government announcing its new Brexit deal with the EU, which was welcomed by many industries but attacked by the fishing sector for extending current arrangements by 12 years until 2038.
Reporting from the fishing port of Brixham in Devon on May 20, BBC Breakfast said that they had been unable to find anyone from the industry willing to come in front of the camera to talk about the impact of the deal.
Instead, they introduced a spokesperson from “one business in Lowestoft in Suffolk” – roughly 350 miles away.
The spokesperson was identified on screen as June Mummery from BFP Fish Auctioneers, but no further information was given about her.
Mummery then told the BBC that she was “absolutely disgusted” with the new UK-EU deal, adding that “Brexit was a golden opportunity to take back full control of our ocean, our waters, create thousands of jobs for coastal communities” and Prime Minister Keir Starmer had “stolen all our aspirations”.
The BBC has now admitted that it should have revealed Mummery’s connections to Reform UK.
“We accept that we should also have made clear that she was Reform UK’s candidate in the constituency at the last General Election, and is the party’s fisheries spokesperson, and we are happy to put that on record.”
Mummery was also briefly an MEP for Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party before the UK left the EU and it was rebranded as “Reform UK”.
