The party has condemned the broadcaster after one notable participant has been announced as a council candidate.
Nigel Farage has condemned the latest example of BBC bias (Image: Getty)
Nigel Farage has said the BBC has broken its “final straw” with voters in Wales, after it emerged that a vocally anti-Reform Question Time audience member is a Plaid Cymru candidate. Last October during a special edition of the weekly show during the crunch Caerphilly Senedd by-election, one woman in particular shot to fame with a furious attack on Reform UK.
The audience member claimed she had “never felt so unwelcome in my own home town”, telling Reform’s candidate: “I blame you for that”. The moment exploded on social media, as left wingers believed Reform had been skewered by an ordinary member of the public. The editor of the local paper, the Caerphilly Observer, even told the Guardian that the Question Time moment had been a “turning point” during the by-election, which Reform only just fell short of winning.
The woman, left, went viral after the BBCQT broadcast (Image: BBC)
Now it has been revealed that the woman in question has been announced as a council candidate for the far-left pro-Palestine Plaid Cymru party.
Named publicly as Alison Vyas, she will represent the party in the Van Community Council elections.
Ms Vyas also appeared in Plaid Cymru social media videos after her attack on Reform during the Question Time episode, insisting she feels “passionate about Caerphilly”.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has now condemned the latest example of Question Time bias, and issued an official complaint to the BBC.
Mr Farage slammed: “Trust in the BBC has been shaken by scandals in recent years, from Huw Edwards to the selective editing of a clip of President Trump. Now, this revelation will be the final straw for many people in Wales.
“How can there be any confidence that Reform will get a fair and balanced hearing when this is the kind of thing that happens at key election debates?”
In December Reform also went to war with Question Time after an immigration special saw questions from two illegal migrants in the audience.
Fiona Bruce, the host, called on an Afghan man who described how he had failed to secure asylum in six other European countries before coming across the Channel. Another man from Iran said leaving the ECHR would harm “ordinary people”.
Mr Farage blasted: “Both of those individuals should not even be in the United Kingdom.
“They’ve broken in illegally, they should have been deported. Yet they’ve been given a platform on the BBC in an effort to get the great British public to sympathise with them.
“The whole thing was a complete, absolute set up job. And we’re seeing this now more and more and more, total absolute bias and prejudice from the BBC.
“Frankly, Question Time has been – over the years – a great programme. After last night it is utterly discredited.”
Mr Farage added: “No wonder half a million people refuse to pay the license fee every year.”
