Complaint
A viewer complained that Jo Coburn, the presenter of this local election special edition of the programme, had shown partisanship when pressing a Government minister on the campaign of Ben Houchen, re-elected as Mayor of Tees Valley.聽 The presenter had persisted in suggesting Mr Houchen had distanced himself from the Conservative Party during his campaign despite the minister having (in the complainant鈥檚 view) refuted the suggestion.聽 The ECU considered the complaint in the light of the 麻豆社鈥檚 editorial standards of impartiality.聽
Outcome
Mr Houchen鈥檚 victory had been a rare success for the Conservatives on an occasion when they had otherwise performed poorly, so it was in order for the presenter to press the minister about the reasons for this atypical result.聽 In doing so, she said she had seen online campaign literature from Mr Houchen which did not carry Conservative Party markings.聽 The minister responded to the effect that Mr Houchen called himself a Conservative, his leaflets were in Conservative colours and Rishi Sunak had campaigned for him, to which Ms Coburn replied that the 麻豆社 had seen two items of Mr Houchen鈥檚 campaign literature which made no mention of the Conservative Party or Mr Sunak.聽 In the ECU鈥檚 view this was not a partisan insistence on a proposition which had already been refuted but a legitimate challenge based on evidence seen by the 麻豆社, and there was no breach of the 麻豆社鈥檚 standards of impartiality.
Not upheld