The BBC has been forced to apologise to viewers after Boris Johnson was the target of an ‘incorrect’ swipe on Have I Got News For You.
The popular news-based comedy panel show returned for a new episode last Friday, with Professor Hannah Fry taking on the hot seat as the episode host.
She was joined by panellists vicar Richard Coles and comedian Finlay Christie alongside team captains Ian Hislop and Paul Merton.
During one segment where the panel were discussing Reform UK, an inaccurate remark was thrown in the direction of former Prime Minister Boris, 61.
After receiving more than 100 complaints over the remark, the BBC were forced to offer up an apology on their corrections and clarifications section of their website.
‘A panellist, in responding to a question about Reform UK, stated that an individual who had recently made a multi-million pound donation to Reform UK had previously made a substantial donation to Boris Johnson and that later “Boris Johnson gave him an 80 million pound defence contract, allegedly”‘, the statement read.
The popular news-based comedy panel show returned for a new episode last Friday, with Professor Hannah Fry taking on the hot seat as the episode host
She was joined by panellists vicar Richard Coles and comedian Finlay Christie alongside team captains Ian Hislop and Paul Merton
‘In January 2023, it was announced that the Ministry of Defence had awarded a contract of this size to a company in which the donor was a shareholder.
‘However, since Mr Johnson held no position in Government at the time, it was incorrect to claim that the contract had been awarded by Mr Johnson. We apologise for this error.’
The error comes just comes after another mistake in the series saw one episode briefly pulled from BBC iPlayer for editing.
Only Connect host Victoria Coren Mitchell made an error as she spoke on Labour’s plans to introduce digital ID cards across the UK.
On October 3, she asked the teams who would benefit from Prime Minister Kier Starmer’s decision to introduce a digital ID scheme.
She went on to tell the panellists: ‘I was thinking of the company Multiverse, who has been chosen to run the digital ID cards scheme,’ adding the company was founded by Tony Blair’s son Euan, joking: ‘That’s a happy coincidence, isn’t it?’
The claims were debunked by company FullFact, who revealed: ‘This isn’t true, according to both the government and Multiverse, which is an “upskilling company”, not a software developer.’
They added: ‘The government has not announced any partner for the project. It’s understood the government expects digital ID to be designed, built and run by an in-house team, not outsourced to external suppliers, although there has been some media speculation about whether the scheme may create opportunities for other tech firms.’
During one segment where the panel were discussing Reform UK, an inaccurate remark was thrown in the direction of former Prime Minister Boris, 61.
After receiving more than 100 complaints over the remark, the BBC were forced to offer up an apology on their corrections and clarifications section of their website over the episode
Victoria said on X, formerly known as Twitter: ‘Meanwhile, if you see a clip of me saying the ID card contract has gone to Tony Blair‘s son: it hasn’t. That was something I was given to ask about last night, but turns out to be incorrect.
‘Which is bad news for the fact checkers but good news for social mobility.’
Meanwhile replying to another tweet about the episode, Victoria said: ‘Yes, not him at all apparently!
‘Of course I don’t make the list of news stories to bring up, I just get given it, but I should probably have been more surprised. Duh.
‘I’m glad to hear that wasn’t an instance of nepotism at all and has been taken out of the show.’
The episode was pulled from iPlayer, however clips of the moment have circulated online.
It is now available to watch again and the segment has been edited out.
Victoria Coren Mitchell (pictured) has broken her silence after BBC removed one of her recent episodes of Have I Got News For You from iPlayer after a glaring error
The episode of the comedy quiz programme, which aired on October 3, saw Victoria, 53, host the panel alongside Sheila Hancock, 92, Miles Jupp, 46, Paul Merton, 68, and Ian Hislop, 65
A BBC spokesperson told the Daily Mail: ‘This week’s Have I Got News For You contained an inaccurate story about Euan Blair’s company, Multiverse, being chosen to develop the government’s contract to produce digital ID cards.
‘Multiverse is not a software developer and there is no evidence of any involvement in the proposed digital ID scheme, therefore we have taken the episode off BBC iPlayer while we edit the relevant section out.
‘We apologise for this unintentional editorial oversight.’
Multiverse is an educational technology company that was founded in 2016 by Euan Blair and Sophie Adelman.
The Government is thought to be planning to require every adult in Britain to have a digital ID card as part of a new scheme to curb illegal migration.
