Minister accidentally accuses Art Attack presenter of ‘bias’ as he tries to lay in to BBC

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A government minister has accused the previous presenter of Art Attack of anti-Tory bias in a bungled assault on the BBC.

In a rare gaffe, Huw Merriman mistakenly lashed out at Neil Buchanan for his reporting of the federal government’s work on Universal Credit.

But Mr Buchanan by no means reported on Universal Credit, and was in truth the presenter of the youngsters’s arts and crafts present between 1990 and 2007.

Instead, Mr Merriman appeared to be referring to BBC social affairs correspondent Michael Buchanan, who has beforehand reported on the rollout of Universal Credit.

Transport minister Mr Merriman, who was working in the Department of Work and Pensions on the time, stated Mr Buchanan had “always given one side” of the story about Universal Credit.

The extraordinary gaffe got here as Mr Merriman was grilled over claims by tradition secretary Lucy Frazer that the BBC is biased.

Ms Frazer stated she believed the broadcaster had been biassed “on occasion”, as she mentioned a possible transfer for media regulator Ofcom to have extra powers over the BBC News web site.

Mr Merriman was quizzed by Sky News presenter Kay Burley, who demanded proof of the declare. He stated: “When I worked at the Department of Work and Pensions doing work on Universal Credit there was an individual there who would report on it, Neil Buchanan, who I always felt gave one side of the story and not the other side, which was the government side.”

He also suggested the corporation was biassed against the Conservatives because of its popular News Quiz.

Mr Merriman told Sky News: “Let me give you an example, I know that you were searching for them yesterday. I was listening to the News Quiz, which is on Radio 4 at 6.30pm on Friday when I was driving to my constituency office.

“For 10 minutes all I heard, and it wasn’t satirical, it was just diatribe against Conservatives, not the government. And I did listen to that and think ‘for goodness sake, where’s the balance in that? So yes, I’m afraid to say despite the fact I’ve always been a big supporter of the BBC, that struck me as completely biassed.”

Ms Burley identified that the News Quiz is a comedy present, whereas others famous that the present has criticised left wing politicians in the previous.

Labour’s shadow tradition secretary Thangam Debbonaire stated: “The government spending another day undermining the BBC, this time for supposed bias in a satirical news quiz, is laughable.

“Is this the Tories for the next few months? Is this really all they have to offer working people? Scraping the barrel.”