Yet again, the BBC is failing its basic duty to provide transparency to viewers. In a discussion about Nigel Farage’s de-banking, Newsnight invited on Frances Coppola to provide an opposing view. Before claiming Farage’s views were unrelated to the bank’s decision, despite the 40-page dossier which explicitly claims banking Farage was “at odds with our position as an inclusive organisation“, Frances was introduced simply as a “banking commentator” and then a “financial commentator”. That introduction is inadequate.

Frances is more than a banking commentator – in her own words, she’s also a “broke centrist remoaner”. Looking further into her Twitter history only confirms this…

Frances has called Nigel Farage a “hardcore racist and anti-semite” and compared him to the Nazis, she called for Suella Braverman to be deported and called Brexit “stupid”, its supporters “suckers” and its promoters “charlatans”. Frances has tweeted over 665,000 times, so Guido could go on. As always, Frances is entitled to her views – Newsnight just has to make sure that viewers know where she’s coming from in terms of perspective.

UPDATE: Just an hour ago, the BBC also published an online article, again quoting Frances and referring to her simply as a “banking commentator”. Will they never learn…