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‘Tories threatened BBC during elections’

Ed Miliband's strategist says Tory officials threatened BBC during election.

Ed Miliband's strategist, Tom Baldwin has accused Tory officials of repeatedly threatening BBC executives with repercussions if they did "not fall into line".

The party, headed by newly re-elected Prime Minister David Cameron warned of far-reaching reforms such as changes to the license fee funding system if they the broadcaster did not change its politically balanced coverage of the election campaign.

The accusations were made public in an article written by the former senior advisor in which he states: “BBC executives and journalists have told me that there were regular, repeated threats from senior Tories during this election campaign about ‘what would happen afterwards’ if they did not fall into line.

“It is a disturbing suggestion that a democratically elected government would seek to stamp on and silence dissent from an independent broadcaster.”

British Prime Minister, David Cameron takes part in the "BBC Question Time: Election Leaders Special" television program on April 30, 2015.

In a strong show of support for the BBC, Baldwin says: “has been a long-standing campaign by the Conservative party, fueled by the commercial interests of sections of the press, to attack the world’s most successful state-funded public service broadcaster as a giant left-wing conspiracy”.

Conservative officials have strongly denied the allegations describing them as "complete and utter nonsense".

Baldwin denies accusations that the BBC is a left-wing Labour supporting broadcaster and details some of the daily battles he had with the corporation; one of which being over the “the prominence it gave to the idea of a deal between Labour and the SNP that was never on the cards”.

“After the first 237 incarnations on news bulletins, I struggled to see how this theme could be developed further, yet the BBC continued to lead with speculation about bizarre consequences of a Labour-SNP government for the economy, tax, and even road schemes," said Baldwin.

“At no stage was there an examination of David Cameron, Nicola Sturgeon and Nick Clegg’s motives in playing tag-team with almost identical messages on the same non-existent deal. It was a scare story based on a false premise and some badly flawed polls.”

SU/PHX

 


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