BBC presenter Matt Chorley has apologised for misquoting Nigel Farage when he was speaking about the murder of 18-year-old Henry Nowak which has enraged a nation and inflamed anti-immigration sentiment.
The BBC reports that during an interview on Tuesday, Reform UK leader Farage said the public should respond to the tragedy with “pure cold rage”.
In an interview with Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch on Tuesday’s episode of Newsnight, Chorley said Farage had used the phrase “white cold rage” – implying an incorrect racial element to Farage’s quote.
Writing on X on Wednesday, Chorley said:
“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.”
Chorley gave the wrong quote on camera three times in the interview.
Implication of a racial element is important in the context of Nowak’s death. Nowak was killed in Southampton in December. His killer, Vickrum Digwa, lied to police at the scene of the stabbing, claiming he was defending himself from the student in response to a racial attack.
Police bodycam footage showed officers disbelieving an incapacitated – and dying – Nowak telling them he’d been stabbed.
Digwa has been jailed for life with a minimum 21-year term.
View this post on Instagram
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.”
Top image: Matt Chorley, BBC.