Lisa Nandy hits out at BBC leadership over Glastonbury live stream
The Culture Secretary said 'several' editorial failures 'becomes a problem of leadership', during a statement to the Commons on Monday.
It came after rapper Bobby Vylan led crowds at the festival's West Holts Stage in chants of 'free, free Palestine' and 'death, death to the IDF (Israel Defence Forces)' on Saturday.
Ms Nandy said the Government is 'exasperated' with the 'lack of account from the leadership', as MPs from across the chamber called for accountability.
In a statement on the BBC and Glastonbury, she said 'problems with broadcasts' at the festival 'should have been foreseeable'.
Labour MP Peter Prinsley (Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket) said: 'How are Jews such as myself, in this country, to be reassured about the editorial processes of the BBC? And who on Earth will be held accountable for this error?'
Ms Nandy replied: 'He makes an extremely important point about accountability, and that is something that is not lost on me as the Secretary of State, and something that I've impressed upon the BBC leadership as well.
'When you have one editorial failure, it's something that must be gripped. When you have several, it becomes a problem of leadership.'
Conservative former minister John Glen said: 'I think we all in this place understand the fine editorial judgments that the BBC and their staff have to make, but this is of a completely different order, and when people are losing faith in the great institutions of this country, could I urge the Secretary of State, in her follow-up conversations that … the BBC actually identified accountability to individuals?'
He added: 'Somebody didn't follow that guidance, and I think the country expects people to be held individually to account for why they fail to do their job properly.'
Ms Nandy replied: 'I think people do expect people to be held to account for the way that they do their jobs, be that on the front line or at senior levels. It's a point that I've made to the BBC.
'They will have heard what he said and what (Mr Prinsley) said as well about accountability, and it's a point that I will continue to press.'
Jim Allister, TUV MP for North Antrim, described the live stream as 'an appalling pro-terrorist broadcast', adding: 'The BBC deliberately chose not to cut the broadcast, perhaps therefore it's time for Government to consider cutting the licence fee?'
Ms Nandy replied: 'He will know that this Government supports the BBC. We believe it is an important institution.
'That is why we are so disappointed that this has happened, why we have been so exasperated with the lack of account from the leadership, not just about this, but about a previous Gaza documentary and a number of other issues as well.
'The BBC is one of the most important institutions in our country, and that is the reason why it is held to the highest of standards.'
Conservative MP Dame Caroline Dinenage, who chairs the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, said: 'I wonder if the Secretary of State could say what explanation the BBC has given for why this live stream wasn't cut?
'Now it can't be for lack of staff on the ground. They took a reported 400 people to Glastonbury at the weekend. What were they all doing?'
Ms Nandy replied: 'I think she's right to raise the question of what the number of staff who were present at the Glastonbury Festival, or working on the broadcast, were doing.
'But I do think this also raises very, very serious questions at the highest levels of the BBC about the operational oversight and the way in which editorial standards are understood and reflected in the decisions that are made by individual staff.'
Shadow culture secretary Stuart Andrew called for an independent inquiry, claiming the BBC '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'.
Ms Nandy replied: 'What I want to see from the BBC, and I know he shares this, is rapid action to make sure this cannot happen again.'
She also claimed an Independent MP was 'aligning himself with antisemites'.
Ayoub Khan, MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, had accused the Government of 'hypocrisy' because it did not make a statement when Israeli football fans 'were chanting 'death to all Arabs'' in November last year.
Ms Nandy said she 'could not disagree more', adding: 'I think every member of this House will utterly condemn chants of 'death to all Arabs' – it's disgusting and disgraceful.'
She continued: 'The reason I have brought a statement to the House today is because our national broadcaster, which is funded by the licence fee, which is paid by the public in this country, has broadcast something that is deeply, deeply offensive to a community in this country, that has made many, many people feel and may actually have made them unsafe.
'Can I just say to him that as a longstanding supporter of justice for the Palestinians, he does nothing for the Palestinian cause by aligning himself with antisemites.'
In a point of order, Mr Khan said: 'At no stage have I said in my question or statement that I was aligning myself to anyone at that Glastonbury event.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
28 minutes ago
- BBC News
'More transparency' needed on immigration status of suspects, says Cooper
There should be "greater transparency" around the immigration status and ethnicity of crime suspects, and guidance for police forces on when to disclose this information "needs to change", the home secretary has said. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has called on police to release details of two men arrested in connection with the alleged rape of a 12-year-old girl in Warwickshire. The men are reportedly Afghan nationals but police have not confirmed if she believed that kind of information should be in the public domain, Yvette Cooper told the BBC: "We do want to see more transparency in cases, we think local people do need to have more information." On Monday, Farage said he "absolutely" believed that such details should be Police has previously said once someone is charged with an offence, the force follows national guidance that does not include sharing ethnicity or immigration status. Speaking to BBC Breakfast on Tuesday, Cooper said: "It is an operational decision about how much information can be revealed in the middle of a live investigation but we do want to see greater transparency."She later told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We do think the guidance needs to change".She said the government had asked the Law Commission - an independent body which reviews laws in England and Wales - to speed up a review into "what the rules are" around what information can be released and when during a legal case."We're also working with the College of Policing on strengthening and changing their guidance," she two men accused of the offence in Warwickshire are: Ahmad Mulakhil, who has been charged with two counts of rape; Mohammad Kabir, who has been accused of kidnap, strangulation and aiding and abetting the rape of a girl aged under Mulakhil, 23, appeared before magistrates in Coventry on 28 July, and Mr Kabir, also 23, appeared in court on were remanded in custody. In a statement, Warwickshire Police and Crime Commissioner Philip Seccombe said: "It is essential to state that policing decisions - such as whether to release details about a suspect - must follow national guidance and legal requirements."He added that he would not speculate on the personal circumstances of those involved while court proceedings were Law Commission is conducting a review into what information or opinions someone should lawfully be able to publish after a suspect has been a government request, it has agreed to speed up its reporting on the parts of the review that relate to what the government and law enforcement can do to counter misinformation, including where there are possible public order consequences of failing to do independent watchdog concluded in March that failure to share basic facts about the Southport killer led to "dangerous fictions" which helped spark rioting. Jonathan Hall KC, the UK's independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, said it would have been "far better" for the authorities to share more accurate detail on the arrest of Axel Rudakubana on 29 July last said the "ineffectual near silence" from police, prosecutors and the government after the attacks led to disinformation that sparked widespread rioting in the days after the attack.
Telegraph
28 minutes ago
- Telegraph
If you come to Britain and can't support yourself, you must leave
For the 25 years up to 1997, according to the Centre for Policy Studies, net migration was 68,000. In the 25 years that followed, however, that figure shot up to nearly 6 million. Our immigration system is out of control. It isn't just about the number of people who've come here, unsustainable though that is. Our migration system has also been highly un-selective. The vast majority of those who've arrived in the last few years haven't come to work, and didn't need to be earning a particular salary – or often anything at all – to get their visa. Even those who did come here to work are often employed in low-paid jobs, and won't be paying enough in tax to account for the pressure that they put on public services, or the costs that they'll incur later in life. According to the researcher Karl Williams, 72 per cent of those who came as 'skilled workers' in 2022-23 earned below the UK average salary, with 54 percent likely earning less than half of that average. But after just five years here, most of these people will qualify for Indefinite Leave to Remain, or ILR. With ILR, migrants can access welfare, social housing, and free healthcare, as well as stay permanently in the UK and apply for citizenship. On average, the Government spends £34,000 looking after somebody in the last year of their life. Only a small minority of recent migrants will pay enough in tax to cover those costs over the entire time that they're here – let alone to cover the cost of the benefits and services that they and their family will use over their lifetimes. It's going to cost us hundreds of billions of pounds. We simply can't afford it. But it can be fixed. Earlier this year, the Conservatives proposed a plan to reform our immigration system, including by introducing a hard cap on visas and stopping ILR from entitling people to state support. We also proposed extending the qualifying period from five years to ten. This wouldn't just mean that it takes longer for migrants to be eligible for ILR status. It would also give us an opportunity to review the visas of those who are already here. Those who come to Britain from abroad must be able to support themselves, and must be earning enough to contribute more in tax than they will cost over their lifetime. If they can't, their visa must not be renewed, and they must leave. The Government voted against that plan, but they've committed to a consultation on ILR in the autumn. We must use that opportunity to push them not just to extend the qualifying period for ILR, including for those who are already here, but also to refuse to reissue visas to those who won't end up contributing enough. The era of mass migration has been a disaster. People can see it in their rising rents, in the pressure on their public services, and in their increasingly divided communities. Most disgracefully of all, the British people have voted to avert that disaster, time and time again. Government after government has failed to heed their warning. It's a complete scandal, and it's probably the single biggest reason why trust in our political system is in such short supply. Rebuilding that trust means building a migration system that's limited and selective – but it also means undoing the harm that has already been done. We can still avert the coming disaster around ILR, and we must.
The Guardian
28 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Yvette Cooper says ‘crammed' small boats using shallow water launches behind rise in arrival numbers
Update: Date: 2025-08-05T08:43:24.000Z Title: Yvette Cooper Content: Good morning. Keir Starmer has invested a lot of effort in measures that will 'smash the gangs' and today the government is announcing the start of one of his big achievements in this area – a returns agreement, of sorts, with France. It is only a pilot, and the numbers are likely to be small, but the Conservatives never negotiated a deal of this kind when they were trying to stop small boat arrivals. (In fact, as a result of Brexit, they achieved the opposite.) Here is Jessica Elgot's story about the 'one in, one out' returns deal with France. And here is the Home Office news release. , the home secretary, has been giving interviews this morning. In media interviews, some politicians are keen to go on the offensive, by opening up new arguments or lines of attack. Cooper is the ultimate defensive player, smothering all awkward questions with splurge of officious, technocratic reasonableness. Journalists find it frustrating, because she tends to be a bit boring, but government spin doctors are happy because she never messes up. When Starmer and Emmanuel Macron announced the 'one in, one out' pilot last month, details about how it would work were sketchy. In her interviews this morning, Cooper did not reveal anything new about how the scheme would operate, arguing that, if she were to release this information, that might help the people smugglers evade the new regime. It has been widely reported that the scheme will start with about 50 people being removed per week, but Cooper would not even confirm this. On numbers, she told the Today programme: We are not putting an overall figure on this programme. Of course, it will start will lower numbers and then build, but we want to be able to expand it. We want to be able to increase the number of people returned through this programme. But Cooper did try to counter the key charge being thrown against the government – that all the 'smash the gangs' measures it is announcing are failing, because small boat arrivals are at record numbers. On the Today programme, when she was asked why arrival numbers have been soaring over the past year, Cooper cited two reasons. She said: What we've seen in the course of this year has been the change in tactics by the criminal gangs, and they've been doing two things. First of all, exploiting the French maritime rules, which have meant up until this summer, that the French authorities just could not intervene in French waters. That's why we've seen these disgraceful scenes of the loading of people into small boats in shallow waters, and then the French police unable to intervene according to their rules. And that's why it's so important that, as part of this agreement with France, France is changing their maritime rules, and that will be starting later this summer. The second reason is we're seeing [a] big increase in the overcrowding of the boats, so far more people being crammed into the boats. That is why we are seeking to change the law. We have the new border security bill going through parliament at the moment, bringing in the new offence of endangerment, so that people who are getting on overcrowded boats who are frankly putting other people's lives at risks, can themselves be prosecuted for getting on these overcrowded boats. Because it's those two factors that are particularly driving this. By citing these two factors as the explanation, and stressing that the government is addressing them, Cooper was implying that the government will be able to reduce arrival numbers. The Conservatives claim that she is wrong because only a Rwanda-style deterrent policy would work. In an overnight press notice, the party descibed the UK-France deal as the 'migrant surrender treaty' (using Boris Johnson's inflammatory Brexit rhetoric) and Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said: Returning just 50 illegal immigrants a week, and probably less, will make no difference whatsoever. This amounts to just 6 per cent of illegal arrivals. Allowing 94% to stay in the UK will be no deterrent at all. This is a gimmick which won't work. The Rwanda removals deterrent, under which 100 per cent of illegal arrivals would be removed, was ready to go last summer but Labour cancelled it just days before it was due to start with no proper replacement plan. As a result, this year so far has been the worst ever for illegal immigrants crossing the channel. Only removing all illegal immigrants upon arrival will provide the necessary deterrent to stop the crossings. This is the Conservative plan, but Labour is too weak to implement it and as a result they have lost control of our borders. It's August, parliament is in recess, and there is almost nothing in the diary for today. This morning the Home Office will publish the text of the 'one in, one out' returns treaty with France. And Kemi Badenoch is doing a visit in her North West Essex constituency, where she will be restating the Tories' opposition to what they call Labour's 'family farm tax'. If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (normally between 10am and 3pm at the moment), or message me on social media. I can't read all the messages BTL, but if you put 'Andrew' in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word. If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @ The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary. I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can't promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
