BBC swamped with complaints of Ukip bias

The BBC has been deluged with complaints that its coverage of the elections was biased in favour of Ukip.

The 1,190 complaints logged by the BBC are thought to be the most the broadcaster has ever received about its coverage of elections.

A further 149 complainants accused the BBC of being unfairly anti-Ukip, while 73 said the coverage was biased against Labour.

A spokeswoman for the BBC denied there had been any bias towards or against any of the parties fighting last week’s local and European elections.

“Our coverage of all parties in the local and European elections has been proportionate and consistent with our guidelines on fairness and impartiality,” she said.

Nick Robinson, the BBC’s political editor, addressed the coverage in last night’s Newswatch. He defended the airtime given to Ukip on the grounds that it was establishing itself as the fourth party in UK politics. He added: “The BBC gets flak for either giving him [Nigel Farage] too much flak, and on the other hand we get flak for giving him far too much airtime as well.”