Ofcom to investigate David Lammy's LBC show

Ofcom has announced it has launched an investigation into a programme hosted by David Lammy on radio station LBC.

The broadcast regulator said it would examine whether the 29 March (Good Friday) episode broke rules on politicians acting as news presenters.

The shadow foreign secretary has hosted a Sunday morning show on the station since 2022 and also covers for other presenters on bank holidays.

BBC News has asked Lammy and Global, which owns LBC, for comment.

Ofcom received 51 complaints about the episode, but it has not confirmed the reason for investigating.

However, the show in question aired on the day Lammy covered the news Sir Jeffrey Donaldson had resigned as the leader of the DUP after he was charged with historical sexual offences. Sir Jeffrey said he would be "strenuously contesting" the charges.

Some networks have previously argued their politician presenters only host current affairs debates, rather than act as news readers, and therefore their programming does not break the broadcasting code.

However, the news about Sir Jeffrey broke during Lammy's show, prompting the Labour frontbencher to report on it as a news story. That could be one of the issues Ofcom investigates when it examines the episode.

GB News host Darren Grimes was among those drawing attention to the issue at the time, tweeting: "Dear Ofcom, I assume you'll be sanctioning them [LBC] for this, as you did GB News."

Lammy earns more than £1,000 for each episode he presents, according to the MPs' register of financial interests.

There has been significant debate in the media industry in recent years about party political figures hosting news programmes on radio and TV.

Last month, Ofcom ruled programmes on GB News hosted by Conservative MPs Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, Esther McVey and Philip Davies broke its guidelines.

Other politicians who host TV and radio programmes include Ruth Davidson (Times Radio), Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting (LBC), and former Conservative deputy chair Lee Anderson (GB News), now a member of the Reform party.

The regulator said it had advised the network to take extra care after her interview with Dr Mustafa Barghouti, the general secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, prompted a large number of complaints.

"This was a finely balanced decision," Ofcom said. "We consider that Ms Hartley-Brewer's comments towards Dr Barghouti had the potential to be highly offensive to viewers.

"But taking into account a number of contextual factors - including the brevity of the remarks and audience expectations of this presenter and programme, which often features provocative viewpoints - we have decided not to formally investigate."

It added: "While TalkTV's position is that Ms Hartley-Brewer's comments were not motivated by Dr Barghouti's religion or ethnicity, we recognise that many complainants understood them to be so. Given this, the comments had the potential to be highly offensive to viewers, irrespective of the intent of the presenter."