Complaint
Three viewers complained that the presenter, Fiona Bruce, gave preferential treatment to a Conservative MP (Robert Jenrick) who was a member of the panel.聽 The ECU considered the complaint in the light of the 麻豆官网首页入口鈥檚 editorial standards of impartiality.
Outcome
The second question of the evening, discussion of which occupied about a third of the programme鈥檚 duration, was 鈥淎fter recent protests at an asylum seekers鈥 hotel, would a working asylum system solve the problem?鈥.聽 In the ECU鈥檚 view it was appropriate that, after explaining that Mr Jenrick was the Immigration Minister, Ms Bruce should have offered him the opportunity to state the Government鈥檚 position and then respond to criticisms from other panellists and members of the audience.聽 Though his contribution to the discussion was consequently longer than those of other panellists, it was not disproportionately so in the context of a Government minister responding to critical comments in a particularly contentious area of policy, and the ECU found no grounds for believing there to have been a breach of the 麻豆官网首页入口鈥檚 standards of impartiality.
Not upheld