Over recent weeks and months, questions have been raised about the extent to which Reform UK – and, notably, its leader, Nigel Farage – have appeared in broadcast media coverage. On 3 September 2025, for example, the BBC issued a statement defending its impartiality and rejected complaints that Farage had received too much airtime. The UK’s main public service broadcaster justified its reporting by pointing out that Reform attracted a large share of votes at the last general election, had won the most seats at the 2025 English regional and local elections, and had been riding high in the opinion polls over a sustained period. The BBC also noted that “Many political analysts across the media, with different political perspectives, report that Reform UK are ‘making the political weather’ – in other words, the reactions and policies of the other political parties can only be properly understood in the context of knowing what is happening with Reform UK and its increased level of support.”

Political debate programmes, such as the BBC’s Question Time and Any Questions, make a significant contribution to the democratic health of the UK. They allow the public to directly question politicians from different parties and hold them to account. Likewise, broadcast programmes that feature panels of political guests, including the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, ITV’s Peston and Sky News’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, provide opportunities to scrutinise the policies of different political parties in both debate and interview formats.

In July 2025, the Enhancing the Impartiality of Political News project officially began. Led by Professor Stephen Cushion and Dr Matt Walsh at Cardiff University’s School of Journalism, Media and Culture, our aim is simple but important: to understand what impartial journalism should look like in today’s fast-changing media landscape.