Earlier this week, BBC’s Politics Live passed off Extinction Rebellion protestors wearing fake miners helmets made of cardboard as being real miners. Viewers were repeatedly told that an Extinction Rebellion protest outside Bradley coal mine in County Durham contained “miners” and “former miners”. Guido can now reveal that the BBC has admitted there was no evidence of current or even former miners at the protest…

The programme portrayed the protest as an alliance of miners and Extinction Rebellion, however, in a letter to Banks Mining, who run the site, the BBC only claimed that one person who said he was the “son of a miner” was at the protest. Guido hears that initially, a spokesman for the actual miners had his invitation revoked at the last moment. Martin Raine, an actual miner, tells Guido:

“It is our jobs at stake here and instead of allowing us a voice the BBC showed fake miners with fake cardboard helmets and interviewed a student bussed in by XR who got the basic facts wrong.”

A reminder you can feed into the Government’s licence fee consultation here…