PETER MANDELSON, the European Trade Commissioner, has mounted an attack on John Humphrys, the Today programme journalist, complaining to the BBC of his “virulently anti-European” views and claiming that the “anti-European bias” of some BBC presenters is a “problem”.

In a stinging letter, obtained by The Times, to Michael Grade, the BBC Chairman, Mr Mandelson accused the BBC of failing in its charter obligation to promote “understanding” of European affairs and declared: “I do not think the present BBC coverage is good enough.”

He said the BBC gave too much coverage to moderate Eurosceptics and should instead give more coverage to extreme Eurosceptics such as UKIP, who wanted to take Britain out of the EU altogether.

Mr Humphrys last night dismissed the criticism as political opportunism. “It’s delightful for once to be accused of being Eurosceptic when we’re usually accused at the Today programme of being Europhiles,” he said. “It’s interesting that Peter Mandelson has any idea of what my views on the subject are.

“I’m sure we’ll have more of this kind of thing from him in the run-up to the election.”

The intervention of one of Tony Blair’s closest political allies in the BBC’s European coverage is the first evidence of the active role Mr Mandelson is expected to play in the Government’s battle to win the referendum on the European Constitution, expected next year.

Mr Mandelson is closely linked to Britain in Europe, the pro-Constitution campaign group, and is on the European Commission’s communications committee, where he has been drawing up a communication strategy to win over British public opinion.

The BBC’s European coverage has already become an early battleground for the referendum, with both pro-Constitution and antiConstitution campaigners seeing it as critical.

An inquiry commissioned by the BBC into accusations of pro-European bias, published last month, found that BBC news suffers from an “institutional mindset” that leads to a “reluctance to question pro-EU assumptions”.

Mr Mandelson wrote the letter to Mr Grade on European Commission paper to give his views on the review, but asked the BBC to keep it confidential.

Mr Mandelson suggested the Today programme, presented by Mr Humphrys, used to be “biased in a marked Eurosceptic direction”, but was now generally less Eurosceptic under its new editor Kevin Marsh. But he insisted: “There is still, however, a specific problem with the anti-European bias of some presenters, objective presenters to the public but who have many times committed themselves in print to virulently anti-European positions.”

Singling out Mr Humphrys, who used to write a column in The Sunday Times, Mr Mandelson wrote that: “I have much less objection to Mr Humphrys as an in-depth interviewer — and none at all to the admirable way he conducts himself on programmes like Mastermind!” He dismissed complaints from Eurosceptics that the BBC was institutionally pro-EU, saying: “From a pro-European perspective, I have never discerned any BBC tendency to over-represent our viewpoint or present our views as the consensus that all men and women of goodwill support. If there ever was such a tendency in the 1970s, it is long gone.”

His comments that “UKIP views are, if anything, under-represented” was seen by one leading moderate Eurosceptic yesterday as a cynical ploy. “It just shows how cynical the Government is, wanting to make all Eurosceptics seem like loonies,” he said.

The BBC confirmed Mr Grade had received the letter but had no comment to make.

SPATS WITH THE CORPORATION

• March 1995: Mandelson accused Jonathan Aitken — who had described the BBC as the Blair Broadcasting Corportation — of trying to soften up the organisation
• April 2002: The Labour Party attacked Today, accusing it of treating politicians like consummate liars. Mandelson said reporters needed to be more responsible
• July 2003: On Today Mandelson criticised the BBC for backing Andrew Gilligan: “It was a crass error by the Governors”
• February 2004: After the Hutton report Mandelson said: “Humphrys is mired in the subject”
• July 2004: On becoming EU commissioner Mandelson said: “BBC and ITN reporters claiming to know what was going on, well, it’s all just fanciful, it makes you worry what correspondents are really trying to do”

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