The BBC has sparked backlash over its interview with a Piddington resident.
BBC Newsnight was flooded with complaints over its interview with a Piddington resident (Image: BBC)
The BBC has been inundated with complaints over Victoria Derbyshire’s Newsnight interview with a Piddington resident. Earlier in the week, 350 people from a village in Oxfordshire voted in favour of leaving the UK in protest at Labour plans to house over 1,250 male asylum seekers at a nearby military base. However, a Piddington resident named Rachel has now expressed her concern at some of the arguments made in opposition to the plans, saying she is “heartbroken to discover that I am living amongst some very bigoted, xenophobic people”.
During the interview, she told Derbyshire: “The mobilisation of the far-right which we have witnessed this weekend is very much being felt here in this village. The use of fear as a means to rally and activate people has encouraged and invited the wrong type of people to express their hard right views.”
She singled out far-right activist Daniel Thomas, who she claimed has expressed his wish to make this issue his “ground zero”.
Rachel has lived in the UK for almost 40 years, and said she loves it for the “diversity and richness”. She said her husband comes from the Caribbean and she is the mother of two mixed heritage boys.
“This fifth wave of facism that we’re seeing now is indicative of what was happening in the late 80s in this country,” she claimed.
Derbyshire highlighted the other residents’ concerns, prompting Rachel to say that she empathises with them.
“They are not far-right. They are residents of Piddington who don’t want 1,200 male asylum seekers less than a mile away from them,” the BBC presenter argued.
Rachel hit back: “I would like to reframe that and say that probably, most people in Piddington would be concerned about 1,200 men from anywhere being based just on the edge of our village.”
Derbyshire pointed out that Rachel’s views are in the minority from the “small sample” of people she has spoken to about the issue.
“I have been seriously othered because I’ve expressed them,” Rachel said. “One of the things about allyship is that you shouldn’t be expecting black and brown people to defend or stand up to racism. It’s us that needs to do that.”
She added: “I’m a mother of two mixed heritage boys, so I’m feeling fairly disgruntled by this and heartbroken to discover that I am living amongst some very bigoted, xenophobic people.”
Derbyshire suggested that Rachel was starting to sound emotional, to which she agreed: “Yes. It’s really upsetting. It’s always been the most amazingly peaceful place to live and we’ve never experienced the overt racism that we’re witnessing.”
The interview sparked widespread outrage online, with furious viewers describing it as “disgusting” and “deplorable”.
“Disgusting report from an extremely biased medium,” one commented.
A second wrote: “Rachel is gaslighting the entire world along with the BBC. They’ve somehow turned the actual issue away from the total betrayal of the village and its residents into a condemnation of a man who has never been to the village and the dreaded ‘far right’ who have taken no action, caused no trouble and barely even been there. It’s bulls**t. RACHEL is the problem.”
Another fumed: “What an utterly deplorable interview by the BBC. Most of us have long given up our trust in this overtly propagandist broadcaster but shame on Victoria Derbyshire for stooping so low as to broadcast this one woman’s leftie view when so many of her neighbours are living in fear of the migrant camp being set up next to their village. Words fail me.”
A fourth raged: “Ooo letting @BBCNewsnight interview this woman has done the plight of Piddington no favours. Her biggest issue is other British people offering to help her protect her town? People who have already had their towns decimated by this? F**k her and f**k you.”