Nigel Farage’s Ukip branch rebukes BBC for ingrained liberal bias in holding straw poll about leader in front of noted Muslim place of worship ... wait, hang on

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Nigel Farage’s local Ukip branch has rebuked the BBC for its ingrained liberal bias in holding a straw poll on the party leader in front of a London mosque. The mosque in question was Westminster Cathedral.



On Tuesday, The Daily Politics, the BBC show hosted by Andrew Neil and Jo Coburn, tweeted:



DailySunday Politics (@daily_politics) Has @Nigel_Farage got what it takes to be PM? See how the balls fall in @reporterboy film on Tue #bbcdp after 1200 pic.twitter.com/0rtIoW1KrK

BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) UKIP now has two MPs and has been rising in the polls, but do people see the party as a serious political force... http://t.co/dDhct2B7U6

As Daily Politics fans will know, @reporterboy is journalist Giles Dilnot, who conducts straw polls of public opinion using coloured balls.



The clip referred to showed him speaking in front of an ornate, domed, pink and terracotta religious building, and it seemed to irk the Ukip branch in South Thanet, Kent, where Nigel Farage has been selected as a candidate for the general election next year:

Ukip South Thanet’s tweet Photograph: UKIP tweet screengrab

Ukip South Thanet asked Dilnot for the location of the building; he replied with a link to Westminster Cathedral, adding: “Not sure you’ll find a mosque in there though.”

The branch later apologised:



Ukip South Thanet (@ukip_sththanet) @reporterboy I have got it wrong about the building as was wrongly advised and apologise. The random vote remark still stands

Farage was asked about the mix-up on Thursday’s edition of The Daily Politics. “Well, the people’s army are not wholly trained,” the Ukip leader said. “They are enthusiastic volunteers, and volunteers make mistakes and that lady made a mistake.”



Actor and writer Alex Andreou responded to the initial mistake by tweeting images of buildings that were not mosques, using the hashtag #ThingsThatAreNotMosques:

Alex Andreou (@sturdyAlex) Oh my word. I just clicked on the #ThingsThatAreNotMosques hashtag. What have I started? HAAAAHAHAHA

Here are some of the best tweets:

Edward James (@edwardajames) #ThingsThatAreNotMosques But it's got a dome, it must be a mosque?! pic.twitter.com/hw61pPBBa4

Merial Eaton (@MerialEaton) I don't think that this is a mosque #ThingsThatAreNotMosques pic.twitter.com/SARl9lCCHa

Imraan Siddiqi (@imraansiddiqi) #ThingsThatAreNotMosques - Fox Theater, Atlanta pic.twitter.com/Cn5x4U41mo

None of these are mosques. Not even this City Hall:

Abdul-Azim Ahmed (@AbdulAzim) Cardiff City Hall. Definitely not a minaret, and definitely not a dome. #ThingsThatAreNotMosques pic.twitter.com/GXhbnKlxCJ

This isn’t the first-time a rightwing party has got its buildings confused. The English Defence League mistook Brighton’s Royal Pavilion for a mosque last year.

Many buildings in the UK, including St Paul’s Cathedral, have domes; baroque-style designs were also influenced by Moorish architecture, which features in buildings across Europe.

The site of Westminster Cathedral was acquired by the Catholic Church in 1884, and the cathedral was designed by the Victorian architect John Francis Bentley. It has a distinctive candy-striped red and white brick facade, towers, floors set with mosaics, and features 100 types of marble and geometric patterns, inspired by ornate Early Christian Byzantine and Ottoman styles.

• This article was amended on 27 November 2014. An earlier version said the EDL co-founder Tommy Robinson “had tweeted #creepingsharia when he saw a picture of the Taj Mahal in India on the Twitter homepage”. In fact the picture in question was not of the Taj Mahal but of the Grand Mosque in Muscat, Oman.