In July, the UK Culture Secretary lashed out at the BBC, calling for heads to roll over a series of scandals and saying she was “exasperated” over the slow pace of its review into a botched Gaza documentary.
Three months on, Lisa Nandy used an RTS Cambridge keynote to call the 100-year-old broadcaster “a light on the hill for people here and across the world, and the best defence against the tide of toxic populism.”
While these quotes require a few dollops of context, Nandy’s near-sycophantic praise neatly represents her shifting tone towards the BBC. Over the summer, she had landed herself in some trouble after her repeated attacks on Director General Tim Davie led some to accuse her of jeopardizing the corporation’s independence and of “overreach.”
But Nandy swinging in behind the BBC has arisen simultaneous to her taking on a new foe, the UK’s right-leaning GB News network and its charismatic, controversial star host Nigel Farage. It has also come as a free speech crisis rocks America.
Just prior to the RTS set-piece, Nandy made arguably the most powerful intervention by a politician over GB News’ place in the UK news landscape to date. During a parliamentary committee hearing, she accused the channel of challenging the “shared spaces and shared understanding” that forms the “basis of democracy” and specifically called out GB News’ controversial practice of having high-profile politicians like Farage present topical current affairs programs, which she said makes it hard for audiences to distinguish between “polemic and news.” Several hours after this committee hearing, Farage hosted a two-hour GB News debate on immigration.
Once the government receives the findings from an Ofcom review into this very practice, Nandy said it will not hesitate to act in getting tougher on politicians presenting shows.
It was notable that Nandy said politicians from all parties – not just her own – had raised concerns with her over the issue. Her full-throated intervention, which felt pre-planned, comes as her increasingly unpopular Labour Party faces a sterner and sterner test from Farage’s challenger Reform UK, a party that has been dominating space on the small screen and the airwaves.
Labour is extremely alive to the threat posed by the populist Reform UK and has in some cases, including the hot button topic of illegal immigration and small boats, been borrowing from its playbook. By taking on GB News in the public sphere, Nandy is choosing to walk a tightrope, especially given the ease with which GB News can respond to her criticism by simply referring her back to its landmark legal victory against Ofcom, which concerned a report by presenter Jacob Rees-Mogg on Donald Trump and drew a firm distinction between news programmes and current affairs shows. Working with a broadcasting code that was drawn up decades ago, Ofcom has been trying and failing to get to grips with these issues a almost since GB News launched four years back. Nandy’s tightrope gets knottier given that, prior to her remarks, relations between the regulator and the network had in fact been thawing.
Nandy was expected to lose her Culture Secretary role in Prime Minister Keir Starmer‘s recent reshuffle – BBC News reported that this came after “months of negative briefings” against her – but if things stay somewhat stable she will likely now be in place for a good couple of years, a period that will encompass the BBC’s charter renewal. This will be a crunch time for the corporation as its funding model gets set for the next decade, and it may spell the end of the license fee that has guaranteed its existence for the past century.
Incidentally, were his party to come to power, Farage has pledged to reform the “institutionally biased” BBC and scrap the license fee. In recent weeks, and as she prepares to negotiate charter renewal, these remarks may have been drawn to Nandy’s attention.
Jimmy Kimmel debate
Attempting to distinguish between “polemic and news” is something that audiences across the pond will be familiar with.
GB News has long been seen as the British network that flies closest to the sun in terms of taking a more American, less impartial approach to TV news.
This is of course highly topical today given the Jimmy Kimmel saga. Kimmel’s temporary removal from his show over remarks made about the man accused of killing Charlie Kirk have opened up a febrile free speech debate across America. High-profile stars and politicians of all creeds have been up in arms and ABC owner Disney has come in for particularly stern criticism over the very live situation.
While Nandy’s intervention came prior to the eruption of the Kimmel saga (her Culture, Media & Sport department declined comment on Kimmel), it nevertheless arises as the words that those on our daily news channels utter are being scrutinized more than ever.
It also comes as GB News looks to expand into the States. Farage has been very public about his friendship with Trump and a swanky GB News U.S. launch took place in Washington’s Ned’s Club earlier this month, preceding the launch of a new U.S. show, The Late Show Live, hosted by Bev Turner.
Trump was handed the red carpet treatment in his ancestral home of the UK last week and a video of his being welcomed with a rather Partridgean salute by GB News presenter Martin Daubney has been doing the rounds on X. On his journey back, Trump could be seen beaming on the Air Force One when Turner, who was part of his travelling press pack, told him GB News viewers want him to “swap jobs” with Starmer. With Trump seemingly on side, Nandy knows GB News and Farage are spoiling for a fight. Whether she keeps going may depend on whether the worlds of TV news and politics continue to intertwine.
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