Rayner gave an interview to Newsnight last night in which she was asked questions about her tax affairs by Nick Watt. A defensive performance which misled and did not answer questions…

Rayner still expects people to believe that for the first five years of her marriage she lived in a two-bedroom house whilst her brother and her husband shared a three-bedroom house, all while multiple neighbours have independently said that she is lying. We now know that her supposed “expert” tax advice is new, having been sought after “accusations” were made. Starmer told Harry Cole he hasn’t seen it. Why is she refusing to publish it?

Guido is happy to clear some things up for Angela:

• The police have not investigated Rayner over her potential electoral roll discrepancy. The police are now assessing whether to investigate.
• She stopped working as a home help in 2005, 10 years prior to selling her house, despite leading viewers to believe she was at the time. She was actually a trade union rep and Labour candidate at the time of the sale…
• She sold her house 9 years ago, not 15 as she repeatedly claimed.
• Birth certificates are public documents which can be freely obtained and published.

When Rayner next appears on television she should be asked why she is refusing to publish her recent tax advice and whether Mark Rayner claimed relief on capital gains tax in 2016 when selling his house. That would violate the single-property marriage rule of principal private residence relief. Not to even mention the council house discount she may have fraudulently obtained…

Caroline Nokes may need a strong cup of coffee this morning. The Tory MP has landed herself in hot water amongst Tory members for her performance on Newsnight last night, after refusing to acknowledge the flawed asylum system that led to a chemical attack in Clapham. She was more passionate about “micro-aggressions”…

When asked about the fact that the chemical attacker was an illegal immigrant who was granted asylum on his third attempt after a sexual assault conviction, Nokes brushed it off, saying “I think it’s wrong to comment on that“. Instead, the subject turned to the importance of micro-aggressions. Presenter Kirsty Wark agreed with Nokes’ moving speech on the impact of micro-aggressions, and that they can escalate to serious crimes, hinting at a connection to the Clapham attack. The Tories seem increasingly unaware that immigration is a going to be a massive election issue…

BBC bosses are taking the scissors to veteran programmes in a bid to save cash “in a tough financial climate“. Finally it’s been confirmed that Newsnight is getting the snip, losing 10 minutes of airtime along with its investigative department. More studio debates will replace them. The BBC is hoping that’ll save £7.5 million. It needs to save £500 million thanks to the two-year licence fee freeze…

The Newsnight team is reportedly cutting over half of its 60-strong team because “It simply no longer makes sense to keep a bespoke reporting team dedicated to a single news programme with a small and declining audience, however good that programme is”. BBC Verify is being expanded and BBC News at One is getting extended to an hour, along with a boost to digital content. In typical BBC style this cut will end up adding a net 20 jobs…

Another victory for Guido’s co-conspirators, as the BBC has finally admitted to a “biased” attack on GB News on Newsnight last month, conceding they breached their own editorial standards. The programme received multiple complaints – Guido let co-conspirators know how they could complain about the show – and Philip Davies MP wrote an official letter to the BBC. It only took a month for a reply…

Davies told GB News:

“I complained on their behalf to the BBC and it has taken precisely one month to get their final response with a mealy-mouthed, grudging acceptance that the programme was indeed in breach of rules of impartiality, although it is disappointing that their final decision spent more time seeking to justify their actions than apologising.”

Davies has referred the issue to Ofcom to investigate further, hoping they can use their “powers” to ensure Newsnight doesn’t just have three people nodding in agreement again. No wonder the show is facing a £5 million budget cut…

Another victory for Guido’s co-conspirators as the BBC’s Newsnight editor admits that it didn’t “quite get it right” on its extreme, unbalanced anti-GB News programme last week. Guido let co-conspirators know how they could complain about the show trial and as a consequence the BBC’s own Newswatch was forced to discuss their coverage and haul editor Stewart Maclean in for self-flaggelation. Guido agrees that “the discussion would have been better” if they had someone on to defend GB News but finds it hard to believe that there was no-one available…

The BBC complaints team responded to co-conspirators yesterday. They said:

“We do understand that you might feel the item was therefore unbalanced, considering the way the discussion unfolded on air, and are happy to accept that in this case this item could have worked better if we had managed to find someone to robustly defend the channel”.

Maclean claimed in Newsnight’s defence that “it’s often very hard to pin down guests, particularly for a late-night news programme who are available and able to come on”. Yet Newsnight’s producers were able to pin down three guests who shared the same viewpoint. Maybe hire producers with different contacts?

Late last night BBC’s Newsnight hosted an unbalanced GB News bashing panel where both Adam Boulton and Caroline Nokes called for the channel to be taken off-air because Laurence Fox was rude. Ofcom, when it ruled against GB News over impartiality, reminded broadcasters:

“The Code is clear that when programmes are dealing with matters of major political controversy and current public policy, the heightened special impartiality requirements apply. Specifically, Rules 5.11 and 5.12 require that an appropriately wide range of significant views must be included and given due weight in such programmes, or in clearly linked and timely programmes.”

Calling for the shutdown of a broadcaster because a presenter has behaved badly is an extreme stance. Despite the BBC’s roster of presenters including the likes of Russell Brand, Jimmy Saville and John Peel – all of whom behaved far worse than Laurence Fox – their misbehaviour has not resulted in calls for the station to be shut down. Newsnight’s panel did not constitute the required “appropriately wide range of significant views” as required by Ofcom. If co-conspirators want to make a complaint to Ofcom about Newsnight’s lack of impartiality they can do it here.

Over on Sky News earlier last night Guido’s editor was part of a more balanced discussion with Gina Miller where he derided the idiocy of Laurence Fox whilst defending the upstart station’s output and journalism:

Rival channels have a self-interested motive to protect what Adam Boulton phrased as the “delicate and important broadcast ecology” from the upstart channel which is regularly beating them in terms of ratings. Ava Evans herself opposes any move to close the channel. The calls for Ofcom to sanction the station come from politicians opposed to the political skew of the channel and the self-interest of rival broadcasters. 

UPDATE: A co-conspirator points out Ofcom will only investigate a BBC-related complaint once the BBC complaints procedure has been exhausted. Complaints can be directed here…