Lord Grade, the former chairman of the BBC governors, has been accused of failing to be open about his links to the Conservative party after he accused the broadcasters of “bullying” Downing Street over the television election debates.
Sir Michael Lyons, who succeeded Grade in the different post of chair of the BBC Trust in 2007, accused him of an “audacious” attempt to push a party position dressed up as a lesson on broadcasting impartiality.
Lyons, a former Labour councillor who served as chairman of the BBC Trust from 2007-11, spoke to The World at One on BBC Radio 4 about Grade’s intervention. “I thought it was audacious really. Here we have a Conservative lord giving us party policy dressed up as a lecture on impartiality for the broadcasters.
“Either he didn’t seem to be aware of that or, certainly, it wasn’t made apparent. Indeed perhaps the BBC should have made it more apparent.”
Lyons spoke out after Grade, who is a Tory peer, warned that broadcasters risked breaching rules on impartiality if they place an empty chair in David Cameron’s place if he declines to take part in a head-to-head TV debate with Ed Miliband. Grade called on the BBC to make an immediate public statement that it will refrain from threatening the prime minister with an empty chair.
Lord Grade, who served as chairman of the BBC board of governors between 2004 and 2006, told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 on Wednesday: “The idea that broadcasters can threaten politicians with empty chairs, real or imaginary, is completely unacceptable and against the statutory requirement for impartiality …
“It is not for the broadcasters to threaten the prime minister and risk breaching their duty of impartiality. The BBC should stand up today and say that they are not going to empty-chair anybody or to threaten anybody.”
In an article in the Times, Grade wrote: “It is bullying, a case of the broadcast media getting way ahead of itself.”
Grade’s view was supported in part by Lord Mandelson who said broadcasters were not entitled to waive the threat of an empty chair. But Labour later challenged Grade by pointing out that he said in January no leader had a right to veto the debates.
Lyons said the debate negotiations have been a “dog’s dinner” as he said Cameron was right to object to the exclusion of the Green party leader, Natalie Bennett, after the Ukip leader, Nigel Farage, was invited. But he said that the broadcasters had done their best to deliver a head-to-head debate between David Cameron and Ed Miliband, the two leaders most likely to be prime minister after the election. “There has been no debate about the principle of whether these debates should take place. It is all gaming about the detail.”
The broadcasters had proposed holding a four-way debate between David Cameron, Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage, a three-way debate between the leaders of the three main Westminster parties and a head-to-head between Miliband and Cameron. The broadcasters amended their proposals after Cameron objected to the exclusion of the Greens.
They proposed holding two debates among the seven party leaders in early and mid-April and one head-to-head debate between Miliband and Cameron on 30 April. The prime minister has agreed to take part in one debate with six other party leaders which must take place in the week beginning 23 March – before the formal start of the short election campaign.
The former BBC Trust chairman said he had never hidden his links to the Labour party and in contrast Grade had been less than straightforward about his Tory links during his time as chairman of the BBC board of governors.
“I am not saying that he hid them,” Lyons said. “But he certainly was never clear about them while he was chair of the BBC. I think far too frequently we see people entering into public debate and concealing or at least not being honest about their real motives in doing that. So here we had something dressed up as a lecture about impartiality when it was really the party line.”
