BBC faces complaint over ‘biased and bigoted' Woman's Hour presenter

Telegraph

24-05-2025

A feminist campaigner has made a formal complaint to the BBC over a 'biased and bigoted' Woman's Hour presenter.
Helen Joyce, director of advocacy at the women's rights group Sex Matters, said her views had been 'misrepresented' on the programme by Anita Rani.
She said Rani should not have been allowed to present a series of interviews with figures on both sides of the transgender debate, because she had previously shown 'extreme and unacceptable bias' on the issue.
BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour spoke to figures on both sides of the debate in the wake of April's Supreme Court decision that trans women are not legally women and the word 'sex' in the Equality Act refers to biological sex and not gender identity.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission then put out interim guidance to organisations to underline that in places such as hospitals, shops and restaurants, 'trans women (biological men) should not be permitted to use the women's facilities'.
A growing number of public bodies have changed their guidance in light of the judgment. The Football Association, for example, has said trans women could be banned from women's sport.
But other organisations, including the Houses of Parliament, have said they are awaiting final guidance from the EHRC.
Ms Joyce appeared on Woman's Hour last week, and her appearance was followed two days later by Sacha Deshmukh, chief executive of Amnesty International UK.
In her letter of complaint to the BBC, she criticised the 'choice to use a demonstrably biased and bigoted presenter, Anita Rani, for that interview, thereby giving her and the interviewee the chance to misrepresent me'.
Ms Joyce said Rani had 'previously publicly demonstrated bias and prejudice towards the gender-critical viewpoint' and should never have been allowed to take part in the series of interviews because 'she is demonstrably not neutral'.
'In particular, she shouldn't have been allowed to interview Sacha Deshmukh because it was obvious she would give him an easy ride for ideological reasons,' she said.
She quoted a tweet Ms Rani had written in 2021 in response to widespread criticism of Woman's Hour for inviting Paris Lees, a trans author who identifies as a woman, to talk about the book What It Feels Like For A Girl.
Ms Rani had tweeted: 'I'm disgusted by the levels of transphobia on here. Woman's Hour is a space to discuss everything about LGBTQ+ issues.
'Listening to people's stories helps us understand something and hopefully empathise. Ditch the hate.'
Ms Joyce said the tweet revealed 'extreme and unacceptable bias, indeed prejudice'.
She said Lees' book was as 'offensive' as if Rachel Dolezal, the US white activist castigated for identifying as black, had written a book called What It Feels Like For A Black Person.
'And if you can't understand the justified criticisms of Woman's Hour for inviting Lees on, imagine the response if a show dedicated to issues that affect black people had invited Dolezal on to tell them what it's like to be black,' she said.
'Guests on BBC shows deserve better than to have demonstrably biased presenters twist what they say to give guests with opposing viewpoints the opportunity to make false statements about them without challenge.'
Ms Joyce said Rani misrepresented her viewpoint in a question to Mr Deshmuck, allowing him to claim she did not understand the Supreme Court judgment.
She wrote: 'Anita asked Sacha misleading questions which muddled up my explanation of the judgment and my advocacy for the gender-critical view, which enabled Sacha to claim – falsely – that I had misrepresented the judgment.'
Ms Joyce said that she never claimed that the Supreme Court judgment confirmed that 'trans women are men', as that is not what the judges were asked to rule on.
She said that in the interview she had made two points. One was to explain that the Supreme Court ruled that in the Equality Act, the word 'sex' refers to biological sex, not sex as modified by a gender-recognition certificate. The other was to make the gender-critical case more broadly.
Ms Joyce said she was unhappy that when Rani interviewed Mr Deshmukh, she asked him: 'We had Helen Joyce from the organisation Sex Matters on the programme this week, and she said, 'Trans women are men. That's what the Supreme Court confirmed'. What's your response to that?'
He replied that this was 'not an accurate representation of what the judgment said' because it 'made very, very clear that it was not saying that what was being litigated was the meaning of gender in wider society'.
Mr Deshmukh later said: 'I think that for someone to say that the judgment and what it said about that specific word in the Act has that implication more broadly, may be their point of view of what they would like, but actually inaccurate representation of the judgment.'
Ms Joyce asked for the programme to apologise. However, she has now accused them of broadcasting an inaccurate clarification 'that gave the false impression that I had been 'unclear' in what I said and had asked for my viewpoint to be clarified'.
'Not only did I not ask for that – I asked for a correction to the false claims that were made by Anita and Sacha – but I specifically said I DIDN'T want such a 'clarification', because it would make things worse,' she wrote.
A spokesman for the BBC said: 'The BBC's Editorial Complaints Unit will respond to this complaint directly, in accordance with our usual complaints procedure. Woman's Hour has given an on air clarification, stating that when Helen Joyce from the campaign group Sex Matters was quoted in the interview with Sacha Deshmukh, chief executive of Amnesty International UK, her comment referred to the Equality Act and not to the issue of sex and gender in wider society or any other legislation.
'Both interviews were part of a series broadcast by Woman's Hour over the past two weeks, which reflect a wide range of perspectives on the Supreme Court ruling.'