News, Â鶹ԼÅÄ News Channel, 6 June 2022

Complaint

In an interview with the Conservative MP Lee Anderson, Geeta Guru-Murphy asked him his views on whether Conservative voters would continue to support Boris Johnson as party leader despite public criticisms of his conduct. A viewer complained that in doing so, the presenter had incorrectly stated Mr Johnson had lied to the Queen.  The ECU considered the complaint against the standards on accuracy set out in the Â鶹ԼÅÄ Editorial Guidelines.


Outcome

The interviewer asked Mr Anderson “You think it’s as simple as that? People don’t look at the prime minister’s character and think he’s a man who’s lied to the Queen, lied to the House of Commons, lied to the public, and they don’t trust him anymore?â€Â  In the context of the discussion, and taking into account the way the reference to lying to the Queen was couched, the ECU did not understand her to be making a statement, but to be referring to concerns which she attributed to the electorate at large – specifically, in the instance complained of,  about Mr Johnson’s advice to Her Majesty on the prorogation of Parliament, which the Supreme Court found to be illegal.  Although an element of overtalking made the interviewer’s wording less clearly audible than it might have been, the ECU considered it to amount a legitimate question about whether, in Mr Anderson’s opinion, Conservative supporters would set aside any doubts on these matters.
Not Upheld