Kim Harris

If , as Lara Kuenssberg now says , it was clear in 2016 that Farage’s claim about Turkey being fast tracked to EU membership wasn’t true why didn’t she explicitly say so then ? It has taken 10 years for Laura Kuenssberg to finally distance herself from the stance of stenography and false equivalence she adopted as BBC Political Editor in 2016 , thus committing an act of national disservice Today she called out Farage on one of his most egregious lies - about Turkey being fast tracked to EU membership Let’s look at how she handled it at the time In March 2016, Farage and UKIP heavily campaigned on the assertion that Turkey was being "fast-tracked" into the EU, warning that up to 77 million Turkish citizens would gain visa-free travel or eventual free movement rights to the UK. Kuenssberg's reporting in 2016 did not explicitly label Farage's Turkey claims as "untrue." Instead she resorted to ‘both siding’ without the critical ( and factually based) evaluation one might expect from a BBC Political Editor. She created a false balance by putting UKIP's false claims alongside the factually accurate statements from Prime Minister David Cameron as if the two were of equal merit . The facts , as Kuenssberg now acknowledges, were not in doubt. Turkey's accession ( if it took place) was decades away and the UK held an absolute veto over any new nation entering the bloc. Kuenssberg did not explicitly call the Turkey fast-track claim "untrue" until now, a decade after the referendum. Today when the beleaguered Farage insisted his original warnings were accurate, Kuenssberg explicitly slapped down the claim, stating: "It wasn't true that they were being fast-tracked into the European Union. That was very clear at the time. It wasn't true." If only Kuenssberg had displayed the same mettle 10 years ago The nation has cause to mourn the missed opportunity Meanwhile the Express is outraged that Kuenssberg has ten years late confronted Farage with the truth . Plus ca change 👇