Nigel Farage hand-delivers letter demanding apology after BBC airs claim he had ‘blood on hands’ over man’s death wrongly blamed on Brexit
The former Ukip leader claimed a senior reporter had encouraged a 'terrible slur that was cast upon me' and threatened to stop paying his TV licence.
NIGEL Farage has threatened to stop paying his TV licence fee after the BBC aired a claim that he had “blood on his hands” over the death of a man which was wrongly blamed on Brexit.
The former Ukip leader hand-delivered a letter to the director general yesterday, asking for an official apology for “a terrible slur that was cast upon me”.
He accused the Beeb of having “deliberately stirred up racial tension to make the story fit its skewed view of Brexit”.
The row dates back to the tragic death of Arkadiusz Jozwik, a 40-year-old Polish man who was punched in the head during a row with a teenager in Harlow last August.
Although initially it was suggested the attack may have been racially motivated, a court has heard since this was not the case.
But Mr Farage is angry with the BBC’s reporting of the incident, calling it an “irresponsible” journalism that caused him “more misery than any other in my 25 years in politics”.
Writing in the he took particular offence to a report by senior journalist John Sweeney on BBC Two's Newsnight, who interviewed a friend of Mr Jozwik called Eric Hind.
The MEP said the reporter encouraged him to “mention names” as to who was to blame for the killing.
Mr Hind said: "But I mean, Nigel Farage, I mean, thank you for that, because you are part of this death, and you've got blood on your hands, thanks to you, thanks for all your decisions, wherever you are.”
Mr Farage said: “Sweeney did make it clear that I denied this allegation, but the damage was done and this hugely irresponsible piece of journalism was aired, presumably after a BBC lawyer had seen it.”
He added: “Could there be any better example of BBC bias when it comes to Britain's democratically determined withdrawal from the EU?”
Mr Farage, who posted a video on Twitter of him handing a letter into the BBC yesterday, said: “This single report, because it opened the floodgates to other media, has caused my family and me more misery than any other in my 25 years in politics.
“At the time, I couldn't even go out to buy a newspaper without abuse being hurled at me. All of us lived in fear of a reprisal. Bile overflowed on social media.
“I don't think Sweeney - or the BBC - has any idea what it's like to exist in a state of perpetual worry as the result of such an accusation.”
Mr Farage added: “The question for Lord Hall is: will he now behave like a gentleman and correct the record, or is he content to preside over the kind of shoddy journalism that even the police had warned was unacceptable?”
The 16-year-old behind the attack, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has since been sentenced to three years in a young offenders’ institution for manslaughter.
During the trial, the court heard the crime was nothing to do with the Brexit vote, and the defence claimed it was in fact Mr Jozwik and the friend who was with him at the time who made racist remarks.
