Academic analysis detailing the over-use of right-wing guests on Question Time has resurfaced after Nigel Farage was platformed on the show for an incredible 38th time.
Researchers at Cardiff University produced an analysis in June of every episode of the programme between September 2014 and July 2023 in order to see whether the broadcaster was appropriately balancing political viewpoints.
They analysed a total of 352 programmes with 1734 guest slots, which were filled by 661 different people finding that, while the BBC had “broadly balanced” appearances from representatives of the UK’s main political parties, when it came to members of the media a right-wing bias became evident.
In an article for The Conservation, Matt Walsh, head of the School of Journalism, Media and Culture at Cardiff University, wrote: “Removing politicians from the list of most frequent guests shows that several high-frequency panellists are being used, most of whom come from the political right.
“The regularly featured journalists are typically opinion columnists who contribute to right-wing press outlets such as the Mail or the Telegraph, or who make appearances on right-leaning broadcasters like GB News and TalkTV.”
Indeed, the five most regular non-political guests have all written for The Spectator: Isabel Oakeshott, Julia Hartley-Brewer, Kate Andrews, Tim Stanley and Camilla Tominey.
Yet there is no such similar frequency of guests from left-wing media.
While Oakeshott appeared 13 times across the period studied, the most frequent guest from a left-wing publication – Ash Sarkar from Novara Media – appeared just six times.
Walsh added that the BBC’s overreliance on guests from right-wing media suggests a failure to achieve balance.
Related: Alastair Campbell spectacularly owns Nigel Farage on Question Time