‘We’ve grabbed you as the winner of this but actually the rest of this room’s media is going to the person who came second, Llŷr Powell from Reform’
The mainstream media has come in for criticism, after outlets interviewed Reform representatives instead of the Plaid Cymru’s new Senedd member, Lindsay Whittle, following his by-election win last Thursday.
At the election count itself, BBC Wales Politics journalist Teleri Glyn Jones began her interview with Whittle by saying: “We’ve grabbed you as the winner of this but actually the rest of this room’s media is going to the person who came second, Llŷr Powell from Reform. What do you think that tells us?”.
Plaid Cymru claimed a clear victory in last week’s by-election, winning 47% of the vote with a majority of 3,848.
Labour lost the Senedd seat, dropping into third after Reform with just 3,713 votes.
Commentator Gerry Hasan said of the lack of coverage of Plaid: “Normal service on #TrevorPhillips & #BBCLauraK. Days after Plaid Cymru won the #Caerphilly by-election there is no room for Plaid on either programme.
“But Trevor Phillips has room for the losing party: Farage’s Reform & Zia Yusuf. Ever get the feeling you are being cheated?”.
Another X user, Saul Staniforth, wrote: “Plaid Cymru won the Caerphilly by-election, beating Reform into second place. So does #trevorphillips interview someone from the winning party? Of course he doesn’t!
“Instead he interviews Zia Yusuf from Reform.”
The BBC has come under fire for giving too much coverage to Reform UK.
A recent study into the impartiality of political news found that Reform, a party with 5 MPs, featured in 25% of the BBC’s news bulletin. Meanwhile, the Lib Dems, who have 72 MPs, appear in a fifth of bulletins (17.9%).
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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