The announcement of a policy proposal by a major political party is a legitimate subject for BBC News coverage. Our coverage has also scrutinised and fact-checked the claims made in relation to it. For example, Newscast examined Reform’s proposal, while BBC Verify has separately looked at and broken down what Reform says it wants to do and how realistic it is. Joe Pike’s interview with Robert Jenrick, which aired on the BBC News at Six and Ten on 17 August, also featured robust questioning of the policy, including probing how many people would be affected by the proposed changes.

Our Editorial Guidelines make it clear that: “Evidence of past electoral support and current electoral support should be taken into account in making judgements about appropriate levels of coverage and prominence.” Although Reform UK currently has eight MPs, it won more than four million votes at the 2024 general election, making it the third-largest party in terms of vote share, with more than 14%. Until recently, Reform had also been leading in multiple voting-intention opinion polls in the UK for more than a year.

We therefore think it is important to cover, analyse and scrutinise the party, as we do with other political parties, so that our audience has the information it needs to make informed decisions at elections. BBC News’ responsibility is to report significant political developments while subjecting claims and proposals to appropriate scrutiny.