Sam Francis<\/span>Political reporter<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Reform UK has said it will no longer co-operate with a BBC documentary about the party following a row over how a speech by US President Donald Trump was edited.<\/p>\n The BBC had commissioned an outside production company, October Films, to make the programme, which was due to air in January. <\/p>\n The company was involved in the Panorama documentary about Trump which has triggered a major row at the broadcaster, though was not responsible for the editing of the speech, which was done by BBC staff.<\/p>\n An internal Reform email seen by BBC News said the production firm had “conducted themselves professionally” on the project but advised members to decline to participate with filming going forward.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n October Films has been approached for comment, while the BBC said it does not comment on in-development projects.<\/p>\n The documentary was due to be called The Rise of Reform, and was to be presented by the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg. <\/p>\n Its makers had been given “unprecedented access” to senior figures in the party, the internal Reform email said.<\/p>\n It is unclear whether the documentary will proceed without the party’s co-operation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The email referred to the Panorama edit of Trump’s speech from 6 January 2021 as “disinformation”, and said a decision had been made to “cease engagement” with the documentary as a result.<\/p>\n It continued: “We want to be clear that October Films have always conducted themselves professionally, and there is no suggestion from our side that they would maliciously misrepresent Reform UK. <\/p>\n “However, following the Panorama documentary the trust has been lost, and both BBC and the production company will have to do a lot of hard work to regain that trust.”<\/p>\n The email advised party members to “politely decline to participate” if approached by the documentary team, and to withdraw consent for footage already filmed to be used.<\/p>\n One of the documentary’s subjects, Kent County Council leader Linden Kemkaran, said in a social post that she had “rescinded all permission” for footage gathered over several weeks to be aired.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The BBC has come under intense scrutiny over a Panorama documentary, titled Trump: A Second Chance?, which aired shortly before the 2024 US presidential election.<\/p>\n An edit included in the documentary spliced together parts of a speech made by Trump on 6 January 2021 in a way that made it look like he was explicitly urging people to attack the US Capitol.<\/p>\n In his speech in Washington DC, Trump said: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.”<\/p>\n However, in the Panorama edit he was shown saying: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”<\/p>\n The two sections of the speech were delivered nearly an hour apart – with the “fight like hell” comment taken from a section where Trump discussed how “corrupt” US elections were. <\/p>\n In total, he used the words “fight” or “fighting” 20 times.<\/p>\n The documentary aired last year but came to prominence this month when a leaked internal BBC memo which raised concerns about the edit was published by the Telegraph newspaper<\/a>. <\/b><\/p>\n The memo was written by Michael Prescott, an external editorial advisor to the BBC’s editorial standards committee. It said Panorama had produced a “distortion of the day’s events” which would leave viewers asking: “Why should the BBC be trusted, and where will this all end?”<\/p>\n The fallout to the memo’s emergence has led to BBC director general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness resigning from their positions.<\/p>\n Trump has threatened to sue the BBC for $1bn (\u00a3760m) unless he receives a full retraction, apology and compensation.<\/p>\n On Monday, BBC chair Samir Shah apologised for an “error of judgement” over the documentary.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"PA](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/3619\/live\/6fcb79e0-bf45-11f0-b25c-87eae7447105.jpg.webp\")
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