Rishi Sunak appeared on a special broadcast of GB News, taking over from Jacob Reese-Mogg’s segment, answering questions on the NHS and the Rwanda scheme. Ofcom have now revealed that hundreds of viewers sent in complaints and they are now investigating.
Ofcom Investigates GB News Q&A Session
TV regulator Ofcom has initiated an investigation into a one-hour GB News Q&A session featuring Rishi Sunak following complaints about the broadcast’s impartiality.
The program, named ‘People’s Forum: The Prime Minister,’ aired on 12 February 2024, facing allegations of breaching due impartiality rules. Ofcom is focusing on potential violations of Broadcasting Code “Rules 5.11 and 5.12.”
The Broadcasting Code requires news shows to be impartial and provide accurate information while stressing the importance of including a variety of perspectives on a particular issue.
Rishi Sunak’s Questioning on NHS and Deportation Scheme
During the ‘People’s Forum,’ Rishi Sunak faced questions on the NHS and the Rwanda deportation scheme, diverting the focus from tax cuts and the cost-of-living crisis.
Ofcom’s statement acknowledged a potential breach of the rules, “We have launched an investigation into ‘People’s Forum: The Prime Minister’ on GB News under our due impartiality rules. “
Ofcom noted in the statement that hundreds of complaints had been filed after the show launched, “We have received around 500 complaints about the programme which aired on GB News on 12 February 2024,” the regulator said.
Sunak’s Dig At Labour Voters
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak used his time on the show to warn voters who have yet to decide on their vote that a vote for Labour would be “going back to square one.”
Rishi Sunak diverted a question on NHS funding by blaming the COVID-19 pandemic for the long waiting lists.
“I don’t need to tell you the damage that Covid has done to so many things in our country, but particularly, it’s caused backlogs in the NHS,” Sunak argued on air.
Sunak told the audience that it didn’t matter who the Prime Minister of the country was, the NHS was inevitably going to be backlogged because of the pandemic.
“Whoever was prime minister, whoever was standing here tonight, there will be backlogs in the NHS because of what happened,” Sunak argued, claiming that the audience was too “fair-minded” not to know that in the first place.
Sunak insisted that the government was investing “more money than the NHS has ever had” to solve the crisis. Still, it has come to no avail despite the huge amount of trainee doctors and nurses ready to serve on the frontline of hospitals across the country.
The Unique Format of the Q&A Session
The Q&A session featured the Prime Minister engaging with a diverse group of voters, and it seems Sunak’s reasoning didn’t quite manage to sway the audience members.
Sunak all but admitted that the chances of a win were slim for his party, warning voters against voting for other parties, such as Liberal Democrats or Reform UK, as “a vote for anyone who is not a Conservative candidate is simply a vote to put Keir Starmer into No 10,” he said.
Questioned on Rwanda Scheme
Sunak was questioned on his controversial Rwanda deportation scheme, where one audience member claimed “public documentation shows it isn’t working and that it’s not going to work.”
Sunak insisted that the country needs a stronger way of deterring refugees and migrants from entering the country, “In order to fully solve this problem, we need a deterrent,” he argued.
“We need to be able to say pretty simply and unequivocally that if you come to our country illegally, you won’t get to stay,” Sunak insisted to the clearly disgruntled audience member.
A spokesperson for the Prime Minister distanced the responsibility of Rishi Sunak from the complaints that Ofcom had received, insisting that the public interviews that he takes are an “important part of the democratic process.”
The post 500 Ofcom Complaints Received From Disgruntled Viewers of Sunak’s GB News Q&A first appeared on Pulse365 Limited.
Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock / Alessia Pierdomenico.