Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:
“Following Nigel Farage’s claim in the European Parliament yesterday that virtually no MEPs “have ever done a proper job in your lives or worked in business or worked in trade or ever created a job” the BBC ran a piece in their Fact Check section listing the employment records of MEPs (see here).
“One of those listed is Martina Anderson who, the BBC tell us, “spent 13 years in prison in England and Ireland when she says she was a political prisoner before her release as part of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.”
“I am appalled that the BBC would seek to gloss over the serious crimes of which Anderson was convicted after due process.
“Surely there was a duty on the BBC to “Fact Check” what Sinn Fein/IRA would claim about Anderson’s background as well as checking what Nigel Farage said?
“In truth Anderson was convicted of conspiring to cause explosions in Great Britain after being arrested along with Partick Magee, the Brighton Hotel Bomber. Anderson was only released from prison because of the Belfast Agreement which shamefully ensured she didn’t have to serve her full sentence.
“It is totally unacceptable that the BBC should have ignored these facts and I have today lodged an official complaint calling upon them to immediately amend the article and apologies to the victims of IRA terrorism who they have offended by parroting the Sinn Fein/IRA claim that Provo terrorism isn’t criminal but political.”