BBC withdraws educational film about immigration that claimed Britain was 'multicultural long before curry and carnival' after bias complaints

  • Film contained claims that debate had fuelled 'huge rise' in far-Right support
  • It was pulled from circulation after complaints that it broke impartiality rules
  • It's a blow to BBC's efforts to deflect attacks on its reporting on immigration

By Steve Doughty, Social Affairs Correspondent for the Daily Mail

Published: | Updated:

The BBC has withdrawn an educational film about immigration following complaints that it was biased.

The film, aimed at GCSE pupils, contained claims that Britain was 'multicultural long before curry and carnival' and that debate over immigration had fuelled a 'huge rise' in support for far-Right politics.

It was pulled from circulation and removed from YouTube after complaints that it broke impartiality rules. 

The video was removed from YouTube after complaints that it broke impartiality rules

The video was removed from YouTube after complaints that it broke impartiality rules

Among other assertions by contributors to the film, part of a series called Don't Hate the Debate, was: 'Multiculturalism is a powerful tool for survival and possibly the only way to survive, so let's embrace it.' 

Another speaker suggested that 'Britain had never been a nation of immigrants'.

A BBC spokesman said yesterday: 'Don't Hate the Debate is a series of films designed to help teachers enable classroom debates about topical issues. 

'Each film includes a real debate between four young people, all giving views on a topic. 

The film aimed at GCSE pupils was part of a series called Don't Hate the Debate (pictured)

The film aimed at GCSE pupils was part of a series called Don't Hate the Debate (pictured)

The BBC said 'further efforts could have been made to involve contributors with a more diverse range of opinions, so we removed the video'. Broadcasting House in London is pictured

The BBC said 'further efforts could have been made to involve contributors with a more diverse range of opinions, so we removed the video'. Broadcasting House in London is pictured

'While we believe the film did convey the broad elements of the immigration debate, we accept further efforts could have been made to involve contributors with a more diverse range of opinions, so we removed the video.'

How the Beeb fudged key facts and figures 

What the BBC video said: The average Briton is only 36 per cent Anglo-Saxon.

What Migration Watch said: The average British person's DNA is at least 90 per cent European. The impact of modern inflows of hundreds of thousands a year is entirely different from the fusing of a comparatively small number from Northern European tribes in the centuries preceding Norman times. 

 

BBC: Britain was 'multicultural long before curry and carnival'.

Migration Watch: Britain has never been a nation of immigrants. In 1951 less than 4 per cent of the population of England and Wales were foreign-born. 

 

BBC: When Britain joined the EU, 'then we could move to Paris, Rome, Berlin and Barcelona and people from there could come here'.

Migration Watch: It is surely misleading to refer to four Western European cities and none in Eastern Europe, as it is from Eastern Europe that inflows have been so large, with over a million Poles now in the UK. 

 

BBC: European migrants contribute 34 per cent more in tax than they receive in benefits.

Migration Watch: According to the same University College London research from which this figure was taken, immigrants of all nationalities did not benefit the taxpayer but cost £140billion between 1995 and 2011. 

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The film, produced by BBC Education and aimed at pupils aged 14 to 16, was posted online in May. It focused on discussions about immigration among four young people.

One contributor said: 'We were multicultural long before curry and carnival. It's in our DNA.'

Another said the debate around immigration had led to a 'a huge rise in people going towards the EDL and Britain First and reinforcing those nationalistic values'.

Critics of the BBC say it ignored public concern over high levels of immigration after Tony Blair's government triggered a major rise in immigration 20 years ago. They claim it instead chose to prioritise material that suggested anyone worried about immigration was racist.

The new film drew a scathing complaint from the Migration Watch UK think-tank, which said it failed to treat its subject with care and objectivity.

Lord Green of Deddington, founding chairman of Migration Watch, added that the discussion between young people in the film was 'shallow, unbalanced and unrepresentative'.

And he wrote to BBC chairman Sir David Clementi saying: 'Most people in the UK are not opposed to immigration per se, but they are concerned, we think rightly, about its present scale.

'Yet the overall impression of the video is that anyone who questions its current scale is unreasonable and prejudiced … the video seems designed not to inform and stimulate discussion but to promote a particular opinion.'

Following the decision to pull the film he added: 'It is refreshing that Sir David Clementi saw immediately that the material was unacceptably biased and ordered its withdrawal and revision.'

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