Reform UK has pulled out of a BBC documentary made by the firm behind the controversial Donald Trump programme.
Production company October Films had been commissioned by the BBC to create a programme on the meteoric rise of Nigel Farage’s party.
The documentary, titled The Rise of Reform, is set to be hosted by BBC politics presenter Laura Kuenssberg, according to The Telegraph.
But Reform UK has now sent an email to its leading figures, MPs and councillors insisting that they cut ties with the firm.
Reform UK has sent an email to leading figures, MPs and councillors insisting they stop working with the production company
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PA
An internal memo reads: “As you will be aware, October Films have been filming a documentary with Kuenssberg on the rise of Reform.
“As part of this, they have been visiting and filming at Reform councils and speaking to our councillors and council leaders across the country.
“We want to be clear that October Films have always conducted themselves professionally, and there is no suggestion from our side that they would maliciously misrepresent Reform UK.
“However, following the Panorama documentary, the trust has been lost.”
The email “strongly advised” members asked to be involved to decline and asked those who had already participated with October Films to “explicitly withdraw consent” from their footage to be included.
Reform sources suggested the production company had been plunged into “panic mode” by the withdrawal, with October Films “pleading” with the party to help them finish filming.
Speaking to GB News about the decision to step back, Reform UK Chief Whip Lee Anderson said it was a “trust issue”.
He told The People’s Channel: “We’ve see what they’ve done to Donald Trump in the speech, I keep watching it and watching it over and over again.
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Reform UK Chief Whip Lee Anderson told GB News of a major ‘trust issue’
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GB NEWS
“I cannot actually believe what I’m seeing and what I’m hearing – how the BBC, the voice of our great nation across the world, could do such a sneaky, underhanded thing like that to our best friend in the world.
“I believe, and most people out there watching GB News will probably agree, that some of the mainstream media are not our best fans and would like to see the end of us.
“So when they’ve got probably 40, 50, maybe 100 hours of footage there of me, Richard [Tice], Sarah [Pochin] and David [Bull], then there’s a lot to play with there – and they can be mischievous if they want to be.”
The Ashfield MP added that the BBC have got to do “a lot of hard work to regain our trust”.
The Ashfield MP said the BBC have got to do ‘a lot of hard work to regain our trust’
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PA
The Panorama documentary, which appeared to be edited to show the President encouraging his supporters to riot on January 6, was believed to have been edited by an in-house team at the BBC.
It is understood that October Films were shown footage of the film by the Panorama team, however, the splicing of the two separate clips of Mr Trump was not revealed to them.
A BBC source told The Telegraph that “amid all this, we shouldn’t forget Panorama delivers quality prime time investigative journalism week after week – last month’s Undercover in the Police being the most recent example.”
The Rise of Reform is still scheduled to be aired in January.
