𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

I have always been a strong advocate for the BBC. It is a cornerstone of British public life with a proud history of cultural contribution. But the broadcast of certain performances at the Glastonbury Festival at the weekend make that advocacy increasingly difficult. The BBC’s repeated failure to address antisemitism and bias in its content, while broadcasting the violent and racist rhetoric seen on stage at the festival is undermining the BBC’s purpose and mission, and our social cohesion.

Far from being isolated incidents, these misjudgments reflect a deeper institutional malaise that calls into question whether our national broadcaster is still fulfilling its public duty: “to act in the public interest, serving all audiences through the provision of impartial, high-quality and distinctive output and services which inform, educate and entertain”.

This is a broadcaster that has, time and again, given airtime to representatives of Hamas while refusing to clearly identify the group as what it is: a terrorist organisation. It has repeatedly failed to call out antisemitic rhetoric when it emerges under the guise of political commentary and has faced serious allegations of minimising attacks on Jewish communities. These are not marginal errors. They point to a longstanding pattern of moral equivocation and editorial cowardice.

This pattern has now taken an even darker turn.

The BBC’s decision to stream material from Kneecap, a group whose members have openly called for Members of Parliament to be killed, is as indefensible as it is shocking. We have already seen the devastating consequences of political violence in this country, with the murders of Jo Cox and Sir David Amess while serving their constituents. For the BBC to amplify voices advocating similar violence is grossly irresponsible.

Even more troubling is that a leading member of the group is currently facing a terrorism charge. That fact alone should have prompted an immediate editorial intervention. Instead, the BBC gave this group a platform on a publicly funded service, reinforcing the view that sensationalism now trumps basic editorial and ethical standards at the BBC.

The broadcast of little known punk ban Bob Vylan seems to be at the very least a clear breach of the mission to provide high quality output. The repeated chants to kill could hardly be considered impartial or educational, and such calls for violence have been prosecuted in the past. Last year, a woman was imprisoned for saying on social media that she wouldn’t care if rioters burned down an asylum hotel. This was taken to be incitement to racial hatred and violence. Our standards have become perverse and inconsistent when a mother is sent to prison for a hastily deleted X post, while band calling for mass killing are given prime time on the BBC.

The BBC also pays for the exclusive rights to broadcast Glastonbury and is said to send around 500 staff to cover the event. Licence fee payers are paying more money to millionaire socialist owners of Glastonbury, when there are plenty of other commercial broadcasters who would gladly carry the festival at no cost to the taxpayer.

The BBC’s failures on antisemitism are not new. Time and again, it has given exposure to voices whose language around Israel and Jewish people slips into outright bigotry. It has misrepresented attacks on Jewish communities and ignored concerns raised by leading Jewish organisations.

A national broadcaster, funded by the licence payer, should stand for impartiality, responsibility, and social cohesion. In this case, there has been absolutely no accountability. The BBC’s recent decisions betray those principles entirely. Airing Vylan’s hateful rhetoric wasn’t just a lapse in editorial judgment, it was a disgraceful affront to the Jewish community and a violation of the BBC’s own public charter.

This cannot be swept away with vague reassurances and internal reviews.

Earlier this year, our leader Kemi Badenoch wrote to the Tim Davie, the Director-General of the BBC demanding an investigation into any potential collusion with Hamas. We have long called for any institutional bias against Israel to be rooted out.

The Prime Minister and Culture Secretary must urgently consider whether the BBC still meets the standards of a public institution, or whether it has allowed radical ideology to undermine its core purpose.

The BBC must take a long, hard look at itself. Not just in light of this incident, but in view of a broader, persistent culture that has shown a worrying tolerance of antisemitism and hate speech.