hello and welcome to newswatch with me, samira ahmend. was andrew marr out to get nigel farage with him last sunday. and do his brexit a party and the other part competing next week in elections for the european parliament receive a fair and proportionate airtime on the bbc? welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers my name is reged ahmad. our top stories: voting is underway in australia. it's a tight race as conservative prime minister scott morrison tries to stay in power, against a challenger from the centre—left. one of andrew's and on his programme last sunday a united front — populist far right parties prepare was nigel farage from the leader of the brakes for the upcoming european elections. brexit party polls for the elections building a "peaceful agenda" — to the european parliament. he was not happy with venezuela's president nicolas maduro the line of questioning. sends his envoy to norway to explore here we are with one of the biggest dialogue with the opposition. changes in politics at ever occurred in an interview with the bbc and you are not even interested britain's prince william reveals what is wrong with the bbc? the immense pain he felt do you still want to roll back following the death of his mother, on controls and add guns diana, princess of wales. to this country? i've been going around the country speaking at rallies every night, and you know who is not there?

the bbc and from this line of questioning i can see why. you are just not interested. we were just not interested. let's talk about democracy and trust and competence in politics. this is ludicrous. do you still feel that people with hiv should not be allowed in this country? do i think the national health service is there for british people, yes i do. this is absolutely ludicrous, i've never in my life seen a more ridiculous interview. some viewers enjoyed that robust encounter with john writing but the vast majority of those who contacted the bbc were as unimpressed as mr farage. andrew had obviously been put up to go into the old bbc news archives to try to discredit nigel farage and the brexit party. he was not interested in what was happening today and he did not discuss

one relevant point about the discontent in the british people and their concerns with democracy. i am absolutely disgusted with the bbc. we put those points to bbc news any spokesperson told us... the treatment of politicians on air, and the frequency of their appearances has been under more than usual scrutiny new build up to the local elections two weeks ago and next thursday's vote for the european parliament.

last week's edition of have i got news for you was pulled at the last minute exit features of the acting leader of change uk heidi allen with the bbc saying it was inappropriate to feature political party leaders in an election period as it did not allow for equal representation of viewers. that issue of equal representation is a complex one and some viewers have been questioning how it's being applied. and that reference to nigel farage and the brexit party was echoed

byjohn taylor. let's find out more about those rules from the bbc‘s chief political adviser rick bailey. are you in breach of your own rules given the brexit party has never fielded any candidates before? when you approach an election, you look at, when you are thinking about coverage of different parties you look at something which starts off with ofcom and talks about the past and current electorate support. starting point, that's how people have voted in previous elections, but this is a unique election and there are some extraordinary circumstances as you suggested. and that cannot possibly cover where there are new parties and so the context of the election is also part of the things you have to take

into consideration when you are thinking about how much coverage to give to parties. so for instance, a judgement about current electoral support might look at opinion polls. of course people are sceptical about those we are very careful to make sure that we only give weight to opinion polls where there is a robust and consistent trend in them. that's clearly becoming established. is that what you have done here with brexit? that's part of the story. don't forget, the brexit party, although they don't have mps, they do have meps. a number of those are erect elected originally for ukip sit in the european parliament as the brexit party. the same way that change uk have a number of mps at westminster who sit under a new party banner. this is not as if you're going with the party share of the vote number of seats in the previous elections, you are saying they can change party but we can consider all of that now as part of ours. that has always been the case. the liberal democrats and the greens

have done very well in local elections and a lot of viewers are asking why they are not getting more airtime in the elections. i would say they are but they do get some due weight and that's reflected in the coverage. it's been unusual because been an overlap between two different sort of election periods. again, weight can be applied to the fact that some parties did better in the local elections, but that's only part of the story. don't forget those elections are only in some parts of the uk, some of the parties standing in the european elections weren't standing in the locals. it's true that sometimes people notice some bits of coverage and some interviews and that gets a lot more attention. it does not mean they are not getting coverage. nigel farage is standing only as an mep but getting a lot more airtime than other mep candidates, how is thatjustified? he's the leader of a party the same way theresa may and jeremy corbyn and vince cable are leaders of the party.

he's notjust sitting there as a candidate and that's true of all parties. people are wondering if the old bbc rules work any more given the strangeness of this election and the brexit party has only one policy but no manifesto, the conservatives don't even want the eu elections to happen and you have brand—new political parties with no track record vying for airtime. that's the point. this is absolutely a unique election. do the rules need to change how you calculate... the point of the rules is we look at each election in its own contacts and if you look at the rules as they are put on publicly and therefore our editors, they do set out this context as making those judgements so all of those different elements of lateral support are taken into account, but what people see often, of course there are no perfect answers and no mathematical formula that says this is what impartiality is. why was heidi allen's have i got news for you dropped but nigel farage can

be on two shows the same week? it was a single appearance by one party and that's what it was pulled. question time had a whole range of guests during the election period and so does andrew marr. that's how it should be judged. you were on newswatch recently talking about principles but you it's all very well you are talking about impartiality but they don't feel the bbc is being open about how you calculate this, and you cannot expect people to just trust you because you are the bbc any more. that may well be true but as i said there's no mathematical formula, there's a whole range of things you have to take into account. is it uk—wide? is it a short bulletin or long bulletin? is it a weekly or daily programme, every programme has to think about it in their own context and make a judgement across the election period. you cannotjudge each programme by one single addition that but you have a judge across the election and is it being fair? i would say when you're looking at all of those programmes individually, of course, some parties will say we are not getting a fair shout, and it's important we look at that

and take it into account. but it has to be said sometimes also that parties will put pressure on to get more coverage and also put pressure on to give less coverage to their opponents. we have to look at that fairly but also sometimes have to resist that pressure. thank you. it is now clear that the long—awaited and much discussed contest to succeed theresa may is not far away. on thursday and seen in headlines in the news channel senior backbencher graham brady confirmed that the prime minister would set out a timetable for her departure in the first week ofjune. that's the position agreed by the prime minister and the executive. in the meantime the former secretary boris johnson tells a business co nfe re nce in manchester that of course he will run for the conservative leadership. the eye of bill mccudden was drawn towards the captions of the bottom

of the screen there. and finally, these are strange political times and perhaps that's why chris mason's appearance on thursday's breakfast had an unusual visual accompaniment. even cats look on enviously at the number of lives theresa may seems to have had politically. a little illustration for you here, don't get this kind of stuff on newsnight. if you think back the things that the prime minister has survived politically, it is quite striking. just we thought we reached peak chris mason, you have done it again. i'm imagining people tuning in ten seconds into that thinking we had been hacked or something. thank you very much indeed to you, and the cats. so was that a harmless and entertaining device? or childish and insulting? paul harrington thought the latter, writing:

thank you for all of your comments this week, positive and negative. please do get in touch with your opinions about what you see on bbc tv news, online or on social media. you may even appear on the programme. you can e—mail us on newswatch@bbc.co.uk.

and you can have a look at previous interviews on our website. that's all from us, we will be back to have your thoughts about bbc news coverage again next week. bye bye. after what has been largely dry weight loss, this is what happened on friday, fairly typical of skies across the country. a bit cool and cloudy. sunshine in the north but across the weekend, fairly unsettled picture. a little bit of sunshine. on saturday, the best of any sunshine will be in the south. the north of scotland, cloud and patch outbreaks of rain, creeping at times across northern ireland and a few showers for northern england. it's a mix of sunny spells and if few heavy showers by the afternoon. temperatures getting up to around 19 degrees in the warmest spots. barely cloudy and reasonably mild. temperatures typically in mid— single figures. during the day on

sunday, quite a bit of cloud, especially in the north, patch outbreaks of rain, but still some 00:13:09,375 --> 2147483051:43:19,951 spells of sunshine in between. i 2147483051:43:19,951 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 buy.