The BBC has been forced to apologise after completely leaving out the Green Party from its poll coverage earlier this month – despite the Greens being ahead of the Lib Dems.

A Green Party activist complained to the BBC after a graph on Andrew Neil’s Daily Politics show (December 5th) depicted the Lib Dems on 7%, but not the Green Party ahead on 8% – in what campaign group MediaLens picked up as a shocking example of BBC bias.

The figures came from a YouGov/Sun poll, although the mistake may have stemmed from the fact that YouGov still fails to include a Green Party line in its polling images.

Here’s the graph:

bbc poll

And here’s the complaint response:

Dear Mr […]

Reference CAS-3051133-06B3VY

Thanks for taking the time to contact us in regards to the Daily Politics show on 05 December.

I understand you were frustrated with the lack of Green party coverage in the recent poll.

I have raised your concerns with the programme who explained that this was an error; the Green Party’s polling of 8% should have been included in the graph. I am sorry for the mistake and appreciate you taking the time to contact the BBC.

Thanks again for bringing this to my attention.

Kind regards

Molly Dobbin

Let’s hope this sets a precedent that leaving the Greens off poll coverage won’t be accepted in the BBC anymore. If you spot anything like this happening again, make sure to complain here. We’re still waiting for an on-show apology from Andrew Neil…