Zia Yusuf has accused the BBC of “coaching migrants on Question Time” after the debate show invited two small boat arrivals to take part in the latest episode.
The public broadcaster has been battered with damning criticism after it “invited multiple asylum seekers” to ask the panel of politicians questions.
Speaking with GB News’s Dawn Neesom, Reform’s policy frontman hit out at the whole ordeal, adding that he felt like he was on a show akin to The Twilight Zone or The Truman Show.
On the panel was Dover & Deal MP and Migration Minister Mike Tapp, Tory MP for Bexhill & Battle Dr Kieran Mullan, Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper, Green Party leader Zack Polanski and Mr Yusuf.
Railing against the public broadcaster, he told Dawn: “I genuinely felt I was living in the Twilight Zone or The Truman Show or something. It was an extraordinary. It was one of the most surreal experiences of my entire life.
“Astonishingly and staggeringly, the BBC saw fit to platform men who had entered the country illegally and give them a national stage to lecture the country and policymakers on what our immigration policy should be.
“By the way, people watching this programme will be smart enough to know, if a man who broke into the country illegally is lecturing us on why we shouldn’t leave the EU, probably tells you something, doesn’t it?
“And then he also appeared to be a constitutional expert. He started talking about the Northern Ireland settlement. It really was surreal.”
But then he laid out a series of questions, demanding transparency from the embattled corporation.
“Who made the editorial decision to platform these men to invite them specifically?” Mr Yusuf asked.
The embattled corporation continues to face an uphill battle with bias allegations
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GB NEWS
“Was licence fee money used to do that then?
“Were these men coached in any way by anyone from the BBC as to what they were going to say? That would also be deeply inappropriate.
“But how is it the national broadcaster, which is obviously funded by licence fee payers, thinks that the national debate on immigration is one between people who came to the country illegally and British citizens?
“My point to the BBC was, what can we expect next? Will the BBC invite tax evaders to give their perspective on Budget Day? Convicted burglars to discuss law and order policy and lecture policy makers on that?
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Nigel Farage blasted BBC Question Time’s ‘absolute set up job’ in defence of Mr Yusuf
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REFORM
“I mean, it really does defy belief.”
Mr Yusuf then turned his ire onto the bias, he claims, the BBC has against Reform, which includes “stacked and rigged audiences” against Reform.
He continued: “But this was a new low. And look, frankly, I think the British people and people who paid their licence fee deserve answers as to why men who broke into the country illegally were given a platform in this way.”
Last night, Reform UK lodged an official complaint against the BBC after the row between Reform and the broadcaster was reignited.
On the letter, the Reform heavyweight said: “I’ve laid them out. People can go on social media and read the letter. Again, this is a very, very serious matter.
“We at Reform are deeply, deeply unhappy, to say the least, with the BBC in general. But I think this is a countrywide matter.
“If we are in the situation where the national broadcaster genuinely thinks from an editorial perspective, the debate about immigration in this country is one between people who came to the country illegally and British citizens, and I’m afraid the country is lost.
“We simply cannot allow it.”