

More than 400 people complained to media regulator Ofcom and Channel 4 about perceived bias in the treatment of Ed Miliband and David Cameron in the first of the TV leader events on Channel 4 and Sky News.



Ofcom said it had received 110 complaints about “alleged bias” in the treatment of the two party leaders by the presenters, former Newsnight host Jeremy Paxman and Sky News anchor Kay Burley.

Channel 4 said it had received around 300 complaints by Friday morning, with another 30 complaints to Sky News.

Several media commentators and many people on Twitter complained that Burley had been tougher in her treatment of Miliband during the “town hall” section of the programme that she moderated, in which questions were asked by the studio audience.

Burley repeatedly asked Miliband about his relationship with his brother David after he beat him to the Labour party leadership, at one point telling him: “Your poor mother.”

There was no point whatsoever to the Kay Burley segment. Learnt nothing. Cameron not held to account. Ends with a Q on shredded wheat! WTF — Sunny Hundal (@sunny_hundal) March 26, 2015

An Ofcom spokesperson said: “We are assessing the complaints before deciding whether or not to investigate.”

A total of nearly 3 million people watched the live broadcast across Channel 4 and Sky News, with 2.6 million on Channel 4 and more than 300,000 on Sky News.

It is not known how many people had complained to Sky News at the time of publication.