Nigel Farage has thrown his toys out the pram and called for the licence fee to be abolished – because he was told he couldn’t appear on Desert Islands Discs.
The iconic Radio 4 show sees famous guests asked what eight music records, book and a luxury item they would take to a desert island if they were castaway.
A number of politicians have appeared on the long-running radio show, including both Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch.
This clearly has rankled with Farage, who, according to a new biography of the Reform leader by Tory peer Lord Ashcroft, is quite keen to appear on the programme.
In the biography, Ashcroft said Reform had asked the BBC if Farage could be a guest on Desert Island Discs, but was told there was no space in the schedule for him.
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A Reform source told The Times: “We approached the BBC as we thought it would be a no-brainer with Keir and Kemi going on, but it would appear they have a ban on Reform — the party has led in the opinion polls for well over a year. This is the typical BBC bias we have come to expect.”
In response, the BBC has made clear they “do not ban any individuals from appearing on Desert Island Discs and that includes Mr Farage.”
Farage hasn’t taken it well though and decided to throw a tantrum by calling for the BBC licence fee to be abolished in a perfectly reasonable and definitely-not-excessive response.
Of course, many pointed out that few politicians have appeared on the BBC more over the last decade than Farage.
Meanwhile, others pointed out the irony that it was only a few weeks ago that Farage decided to drop out of an appearance on the BBC’s flagship political programme at the last minute…