LBC breached broadcasting code in London mayoral coverage, rules Ofcom

Radio station LBC has been found in breach of the broadcasting code by the media watchdog for its coverage of the London mayoral election during three shows earlier this year.

Ofcom ruled that two candidate interviews and a debate broadcast on the Tom Swarbrick current affairs show in April in the lead-up to the May 2 election were in breach as a full list of those running was not read out on air.

The programmes included a debate between the four highest polling candidates at the time – the Labour incumbent Sadiq Khan, Conservative Susan Hall, Liberal Democrat Rob Blackie and Green Party candidate Zoe Garbett – in which they answered questions from callers on a number of issues.

Ofcom said it received four complaints about the show broadcast on April 23 which raised concerns that the remaining nine candidates were not included.

The station also broadcast interviews with two other candidates – Reform’s Howard Cox and independent Natalie Campbell – on April 18 and April 22 respectively, before the four-party debate.

Section six of the broadcasting code says “special impartiality requirements and other legislation must be applied at the time of elections and referendums”, with Ofcom previously outlining that this period for the London mayoral race started on March 19.

Ofcom said in its report that during this period “broadcasters must ensure that any constituency or electoral area report or discussion after the close of nominations must include a list of all candidates standing”.

In response, LBC said the presenter directed listeners to a full candidate list on the LBC website at the end of the two interviews, but acknowledged it did not do this during the April 23 debate.

It said the production team “had planned to include it at the end of the programme” but it “was omitted due to human error and the pressure of a heated debate within a live broadcast environment”.

LBC Radio added that it “takes its broadcasting compliance requirements extremely seriously” and that after the announcement of the general election for July 4, it had “already provided bespoke Section 5 & 6 training to all relevant programming and news teams as well as producing internal updated election guidelines”.

LBC has been found in breach of the broadcasting code on a number of other occasions, the most recent being a section 10 breach in 2019, which relates to commercial communications in radio programming.

Ofcom also found that a previous early morning show hosted by Steve Allen broke broadcasting rules with “potentially highly offensive” comments about blind people in 2018.

LBC has been approached for comment.