BBC Apologizes to Nigel Farage After Misquoting Him on 'Newsnight'

The Reform leader said in an online video on Tuesday that the public should respond to the killing of 18-year-old Nowak with "pure cold rage".

But in an interview with Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch on Tuesday's episode of BBC Two's Newsnight, Chorley said Farage had used the phrase "white cold rage".

Reform argued this implied a racial element to what Farage had said and changed his meaning. Chorley apologised and said the error was "a mistake on my part".

"During last night's Newsnight, we covered the murder of Henry Nowak and the political reaction to the case, including discussing Nigel Farage's comments about 'pure, cold rage'. However I referred to 'white cold rage'.

"This was a mistake on my part, a misremembering of the quote. It didn't change the content of the interview but I should have got the quote right. I apologise to Nigel Farage for this."

The BBC also apologised directly to Farage and published an apology, which said he had been quoted "mistakenly".

The episode has been removed from BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds, and an apology will be broadcast on Wednesday's edition of Newsnight.

Writing on X on Wednesday, Farage said his legal team had "written to the BBC demanding a full on-air apology and investigation into the defamatory comments made about me on Newsnight", adding: "Enough is enough."

The Reform leader posted a link to a Daily Mail story that reproduced elements of the party's letter to the BBC.

In the letter, Reform said Chorley's error "converts a criticism of discriminatory conduct by the authorities into an apparent appeal to race".

"It suggests that Mr Farage, far from condemning racialised treatment, was himself invoking race as a basis for public anger."

Nowak was killed in Southampton in December. His killer, Vickrum Digwa, lied to police at the scene of the stabbing, claiming he had himself been the victim of a racist attack.