THE BBC has been blasted for giving “lengthy” coverage to a Reform UK press conference on immigration.
The broadcaster devoted almost an hour to the event, with only occasional cuts back to the studio as the TV feed was interrupted, which set out Reform's policy to abolish indefinite leave to remain .
Sky News has also come in for criticism as the channel stuck with the feed even through technical difficulties.
Live news broadcasters often dedicate substantial amounts of airtime to press conferences for 24-hour rolling news coverage but do not always show the full event.
Reform's pledge to scrap indefinite leave to remain in a bid to push up deportations has been blasted as a "desperate and despicable" which would split up families and hammer the economy.
Campaign group Best for Britain, which bills itself as a think tank focused on solving “the problems Britain faces after Brexit”, said that the coverage was disproportionate compared with what would normally be given to parties other than Reform UK.
For 56 minutes Sky News and BBC News interrupted everything else and carried a Reform UK feed live, uninterrupted, unchallenged. The stream spluttered, froze, pixelated - dozens of times - still they stuck with it. FOR ONE HOUR. This is an editorial choice. No other party gets this coverage. ~AA[image or embed]
— Best for Britain (@bestforbritain.org) 22 September 2025 at 12:01
Cal Roscow, director of campaigns at Best for Britain, told The National: “Nigel Farage used this lengthy broadcast to promote Reform UK’s plan to scrap indefinite leave to remain – which would tear families apart and economically devastate Britain.
“Many families across the country will have found this message frightening, and legal experts have highlighted that the policy is unrealistic.
“Our national broadcaster should not be unduly platforming Farage’s divisive politics, when no other party appears to receive the same.”
The campaign group, in a post on Bluesky, said that the press conference had been carried for 56 minutes “live, uninterrupted, unchallenged”.
A BBC spokesperson said: “We know immigration is a topic that people across the UK are concerned about – as such we reported the radical new policy announcement from Reform, alongside the appropriate scrutiny and responses from other political parties.
“Anyone watching or reading BBC News today would have seen the coverage of the Liberal Democrat party conference, which included Ed Davey’s attacks and counterpoints to Nigel Farage and his party’s policies.”
Sky News did not comment.
Reform UK were approached for comment.
