• AMID all the furore over Gary Lineker’s comments on the Tory government’s immigration plans, one key notion that has cropped up is the idea that the BBC, where he chats with his football pals about the games they are dissecting, must be politically impartial.

This is an idea that doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. In the BBC’s news coverage of what might be labelled foreign-policy, the slanted take we are offered, aligns very much with government responses to world affairs – which countries are to deemed “enemies” and which sides to back in military confrontations.

Some countries, “allies”, are almost given a free pass on their own abuses. This in turn, of course, reflects the USA world view. Domestically the BBC reports and consolidates the predominant centre-right orthodoxy.

This country is essentially a one-party state. Any political party or individual that might challenge this consensus will not find the BBC an impartial news outlet. Such was the fate of Jeremy Corbyn. Any opportunity was taken to amplify voices of opposition. Exaggerated claims of anti-Semitism were given space on the corporation’s platforms; not so cases of racism in other parties.

In August 2018 a formal complaint of bias was made to the BBC by a TV licence-payer on behalf of pro-Corbyn Jewish groups, although, naturally, this wasn’t reported by the broadcaster.

In January 2020, when Sir Keir Starmer was running for leadership of the Labour Party, he gave an extended interview to this paper. The future Labour leader was asked by Richard Osley if he thought the BBC had been biased against Jeremy Corbyn. “I’ve never gone down that route”, he replied. I bet he hadn’t!

The only national newspaper of the left in this country is the Morning Star. It publishes six days a week and offers an alternative political viewpoint to the rest of the national print media.

The BBC website every morning on its news page illustrates – with brief commentaries – the front pages of all the national dailies. Not quite! The Morning Star is omitted by the “impartial” BBC.

In January 2011 there was a so-called parliamentary Early Day Motion tabled by several Labour MPs (including Jeremy Corbyn). It noted how the paper was “rarely ever shown or reported by the BBC”. The director general was called on to “ensure that the Morning Star is featured regularly”.

More than a decade on, BBC website viewers and readers will still search in vain for this alternative editorial line on UK and world events. Impartial BBC indeed!

ERIC KREIGER, NW5