The complainant based his view on his observation that, while contributions by Conservative and Labour panellists were greeted by “a ripple of applause” and those by Liberal Democrat and Green panellists by “rapturous applause”, the Reform panellist’s contributions were followed by silence.  The ECU established that the audience had been selected according to the usual criteria for editions dealing with a single issue (in this instance, immigration), which include appropriate representation for supporters of significant political parties.  The complainant’s description did not accurately characterise the entirety of the programme, but the ECU considered the more important point to be that the audience’s reaction to the panellist’s contributions is not within the programme-makers’ control and cannot be taken as an indicator of its political makeup.  In any event, it was clear from the audience’s contributions that there was substantial support for Reform’s position on immigration.

Not upheld