ITV’s Good Morning Britain is to be investigated by the media regulator Ofcom over a possible breach of due impartiality rules after the Ukip leader, Nigel Farage, was asked about his chances of winning the Thanet South constituency in the runup to the election.
Farage appeared on the ITV breakfast show on 1 May, which was presented by Kate Garraway and Ben Shephard, ahead of his election defeat by the Conservative candidate Craig Mackinlay.
Ofcom, which on Monday cleared a controversial Channel 4 “mockumentary” imagining the first 100 days of a Ukip government despite more than 6,000 complaints, said it was investigating the broadcast.
It said there were possible issues around due impartiality because the programme did not reflect the position of the other candidates.
Farage subsequently resigned following his defeat, only to be reinstated, with the party descending into turmoil after its leader was called a “snarling, thin-skinned, aggressive” man by a senior colleague.
An Ofcom spokesperson said: “Ofcom is investigating whether the programme was duly impartial to ask Nigel Farage about his prospects of winning the Thanet South constituency without reflecting the position of other candidates.”
Separately, Ofcom is to investigate another ITV series, the Paul O’Grady Show, after a stunt in which O’Grady inhaled helium gas on 20 April this year.
A spokesperson for the regulator said: “Ofcom has opened an investigation into whether it was harmful for the presenter to demonstrate inhaling helium gas during this live pre-watershed show.”
