Adam Smyth
Director
BBC Northern Ireland
Dear Mr Smyth,
I write to advise you of the outcome of the 2024 general election in Northern Ireland and specifically the performance of TUV which I would be obliged if you could bring to the attention of your colleagues in the production, presenting, online news and graphics departments of the BBC.
TUV polled a total of 48,685 votes or 6.2% of the total across 18 constituencies in spite of the fact that we only contested 14 constituencies.
In 6 out of 14 seats TUV out polled the SDLP. In 6 out of 14 seats TUV out polled the UUP. In 6 out of 14 seats contested TUV out polled Alliance.
In North Antrim TUV won a Westminster seat and Jim Allister is now an MP. This means that TUV has the same number of MPs as the UUP and Alliance.
I mention the above facts because they appear to have passed the BBC by and they should have some impact on your output. For example, the BBC are still using graphics acknowledging that the UUP and Alliance have one MP but lumping TUV in as “others”.
This morning on Good Morning Ulster – the programme where one of your “commentators” described Jim Allister as a Lundy without challenge before the election and a reporter employed lines straight from DUP election literature to dismiss TUV candidates at the start of the election – the presenter claimed that listeners would hear from “all the main parties” without GMU having so much as attempted to get a TUV voice on the programme.
Many of your journalists and reporters – and without naming anyone there is one in particular who comes to mind – have repeatedly said that no one saw the North Antrim result coming. This is in spite of a conversation I had with another BBC journalist a week and a half out from polling day in which I said it was possible. I take exception to being dismissed as no one, particularly when I am right.
You will recall that before the election I wrote to you many times to complain about the treatment of TUV and made the case for treating us a major party. The points made in those letters were dismissed and the issues about unequal treatment were never acknowledged. I now demand that the BBC live up to its duty to be a public service broadcaster and reflects the reality that TUV speaks for a significant number of people in Northern Ireland. It is an insult to our voters who, I remind you, pay the licence fee too and deserve to be heard.
Yours sincerely,
Samuel Morrison, TUV press officer