Ice sculpture & Ofcom complaints: Tories & Channel 4 go to war before election

Britain’s Conservative Party has complained to regulators and reportedly threatened to review Channel 4’s broadcasting remit, after the network replaced Boris Johnson with a melting ice sculpture in a climate debate.

The UK prime minister declined to take part in Channel 4’s Thursday evening climate change debate, during which other party leaders went toe-to-toe on environmental issues ahead of next month’s general election. The sculpture, depicting planet Earth, melted throughout the debate, making the network’s position on climate change clear and metaphorically giving the cold shoulder to Johnson.

The Conservative Party had offered to send cabinet minister Michael Gove in Johnson’s stead, but this offer was rebuffed by Channel 4, even after Gove turned up at the network’s studio.  

In a letter to Ofcom demanding an investigation, a party spokesman described the statue swap as a “provocative partisan stunt,” and “a political opinion in its own right.” Denying Gove a platform in the debate “effectively seeks to deprive the Conservative Party of any representation and attendance,” it continued.

Channel 4’s actions, it said, were part of a “wider pattern of bias.” The letter referenced comments this summer from the network's head of news and current affairs, Dorothy Byrne, who called Johnson a “known liar” and urged her colleagues to aggressively challenge his claims.

Furthermore, a Tory spokesperson told BuzzFeed News that if the party wins December’s election, it will reassess Channel 4’s public service broadcasting license. The channel’s license is due for renewal in 2024. Johnson will likely be in power by then if he wins the upcoming election.

Those who did attend Thursday’s debate – among them Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn, the Liberal Democrats’ Jo Swinson and the Scottish National Party’s Nicola Sturgeon – all touted their green credentials. Corbyn promised to plant two billion trees and cut carbon emissions entirely by 2030, while Sturgeon vowed that her country’s climate goals were “the toughest in the world.” All leaders boasted of the eco-friendly changes they’ve made at home, from avoiding air travel to reducing the heating temperature, to – in the case of Plaid Cymru’s Adam Price – switching to reusable nappies.

The Brexit Party’s Nigel Farage was also absent from the debate, and saw his space filled with another block of melting ice.

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