Complaint
A viewer complained that Jo Coburn, the presenter of this local election special edition of the programme, had shown partisanship when pressing a Government minister on the campaign of Ben Houchen, re-elected as Mayor of Tees Valley.Β The presenter had persisted in suggesting Mr Houchen had distanced himself from the Conservative Party during his campaign despite the minister having (in the complainant’s view) refuted the suggestion.Β The ECU considered the complaint in the light of the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ’s editorial standards of impartiality.Β
Outcome
Mr Houchen’s victory had been a rare success for the Conservatives on an occasion when they had otherwise performed poorly, so it was in order for the presenter to press the minister about the reasons for this atypical result.Β In doing so, she said she had seen online campaign literature from Mr Houchen which did not carry Conservative Party markings.Β The minister responded to the effect that Mr Houchen called himself a Conservative, his leaflets were in Conservative colours and Rishi Sunak had campaigned for him, to which Ms Coburn replied that the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ had seen two items of Mr Houchen’s campaign literature which made no mention of the Conservative Party or Mr Sunak.Β In the ECU’s view this was not a partisan insistence on a proposition which had already been refuted but a legitimate challenge based on evidence seen by the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ, and there was no breach of the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ’s standards of impartiality.
Not upheld