Summary of complaint
We received complaints about an article by our political editor Chris Mason published on the ѿý News website on6 September about Reform UK’s party conference. Some readers contacted us because they felt the article was biased in favour of Reform.
Our response
This was one of several online articles reporting on the two-day event, including a piece written by Chris himself about remarks by the cardiologist Aseem Malhotra regarding the Royal family, cancer and Covid vaccines.
This piecewas written as a blog, commenting specifically on the tone and atmosphere at the conference, something which we often do at the end of party conferences.
Some people wrote in complaining that the piece was not critical enough and reinforced Reform’snarrative about growing support.
As our political editor, it is Chris’s job to provide analysis and commentarybased on his long experience of covering politics. Readers may not agree with him but specialistjournalists offering judgements rooted in evidence make an important contribution to our overall coverage.
In twenty years of covering conferences – and as many years following Nigel Farage’s political career - Chris felt the particular combination of energy and insurgency he found at Reform’s conference was noteworthy and reported accordingly: It is a vastly bigger gathering than the party had last year … but it retains the insurgency vibe that the party is seeking to channel.
Following publication of the blog,it became clear that read in isolation, the piece needed more context. Not everyone will read all our coverage and so – having already entered the caveat that scaling up could be a challenge - Chris and his editors inserted a section about the more controversial aspects of the conference, referencing Aseem Malhotra - whose remarks about vaccines Chris said the party had to ”pretty much disown” - and Lucy Connolly who was jailed for stirring up hatred on X . Chris questioned whether giving her a platform at the event was appropriate.
We added links to articles about both of them previously published on the news website so readers could learn more about their views.
This was the first conference of the season and in line with our commitment to treat all parties fairly and consistently, further pieces summing up other conferences can be expected as part of our wider coverage.
Chris concluded: Reform's momentum has been the stand out political development of the last year basing his argument on their successes in the general election and local elections and their sustained lead in all UK-wide voting intention polls since May, now averaging around 30%.
We appreciate some readers may take a different view but would like to thank those who contacted us for getting in touch. All feedback is welcome and is shared with senior editors.