Ukip leader Nigel Farage has called on the BBC to "sack everybody and start again" on Radio 4's Today programme, claiming that it fails to show balance in its coverage of issues including climate change.
Farage said that he felt that overall the BBC continues to show too much bias in the way it covers news and current affairs, singling out the Today programme for particular criticism.
"In terms of overall BBC bias, on the Today programme there has been no improvement at all," he said, in an interview with website Public Service Europe. "I'm in the car and the programme is on and I hear climate change for the fifth time that morning and I just scream. I'm afraid that there are many things that the Today programme takes to be givens that I think ought to be debated. They need to sack everybody and start again."
He said he felt that the BBC has been forced to increasingly embrace Ukip representatives on its programmes, such as BBC1's Question Time, in a move to provide a balance of views beyond that of the three main political parties.
"The BBC has to provide an alternative view, [it] has to provide balance and it has to provide an argument and among elected politicians in Britain, it is only Ukip offering that," he said. "In terms of recognising Ukip's role, there has been a great improvement. I am being praiseworthy in some senses, by saying that the BBC as an organisation has recognised that British politics has changed and its attitude towards us at byelections and everything else has changed dramatically and that I welcome."
He was also asked if he felt that the often-criticised Ukip was now receiving a "fair ride" from the wider British media: "Yes, I do think so," he said. "Things have changed an awful lot."
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