Jeremy Vine faces calls for his shows to be axed over ‘hostile’ and ‘divisive’ content on disability benefits

Broadcaster Jeremy Vine is facing calls to have his high-profile radio and television shows axed, after years of failing to challenge content that fuels hostility towards disabled people.

So far, more than 1,300 people have signed a petition calling for his programmes – his BBC Radio 2 show and his Channel 5 Jeremy Vine morning show – to be “scrutinised and ultimately axed if they continue to broadcast biased and divisive content against disabled people”.

Disabled activist Atlanta Rey, who started the petition, says programmes like Vine’s “perpetuate harmful stereotypes and encourage negative attitudes, making it seem acceptable to question and debate our existence and rights”, while claiming to offer “balanced debate”.

She says in her petition: “Such narratives do not promote healthy discourse; they incite hatred and mistrust, leading to online abuse and real-world harassment, often escalating to threats, as I have personally experienced.”

She adds: “Concrete steps must be taken to ensure the narratives broadcast inspire respect rather than resentment.

“Let’s call for proper oversight and accountability for shows that have a profound impact on public attitudes.

“If they are unable to meet these standards, then the shows must be axed.”

In July, Disability News Service challenged Channel 5 – through ITN, which makes the programme – to explain why Vine (pictured) continually failed to challenge politicians and commentators who repeat the false claim that spending on social security needs to be cut because it is out of control.

Three years ago, he also faced angry calls to apologise after a social media post in his name asked if it was time to “crack down” on sick and disabled people on out-of-work benefits.

Now the patience of disabled people appears to have run out.

In addition to the petition, a new hashtag – #BlockedByVine – has been shared by many disabled people who have been blocked by Vine on social media after criticising his shows’ harmful narratives.

In the wake of the petition, Vine has refused to apologise or accept any errors.

Only last month, he was forced to step down as presenter of the annual awards of the charity Carers UK following a storm of protest over the “vile rhetoric” that often featured in his programmes, with one critic describing him as an “excruciatingly poor choice”.

Disabled people told DNS this week why they were so concerned about his programmes, and others that frequently air across the media and “punch down” on disabled people.

Disabled activist Sarah Cowley said: “Programmes like Jeremy Vine’s really do need to be held accountable for the impact they’re having on us.

“The way disability and benefits are talked about on his show or others – it doesn’t just stay there, it spills straight out into our real lives.

“Because of the misinformation and outright lies that they push, broadcast and never, ever challenge, we end up being shouted at in supermarket car parks, called scroungers, accused of lying, told we want everything for free.

“It’s frightening that we’re being treated like this and that it’s being allowed to happen. It feels insidious.

“It’s got to a point where you feel nervous about using a mobility aid or anything that shows you’re struggling, because you know someone might mock you or question you.

“You start hiding things you actually need, just to avoid any sort of confrontation.”

She added: “The way he’s treated the disabled community this last 10 days or so has been quite upsetting in that he either doesn’t get the harm he’s causing or that he just doesn’t care.

“I’m not sure which one scares me the most, to be honest.”

ITN declined to comment on the petition and the #BlockedByVine hashtag.

But a BBC spokesperson said: “Thank you for bringing the petition to our attention.

“Jeremy continues to present the topical weekday show each afternoon on Radio 2, which discusses the news stories of the day, whilst adhering to the BBC’s editorial guidelines.”

Disabled journalist Polina Sparks said the concerns about Vine were part of a wider issue with other radio and TV programmes.

She said: “Journalists have a professional responsibility to fact check, to question opinions — whether of politicians, pundits or members of the public — and not to incite prejudice and hate.

“When a programme invites a panellist or a caller to rant about disabled people and the support they get, this is not ‘debate’.

“Callers don’t randomly come in, they are screened and selected by the programme producers.

“Letting someone broadcast their prejudice is an active choice. Not challenging it is an active choice. Using clips of it for social media clicks is an active choice.

“Promoting programmes with social media posts, where the template is a hostile statement, followed by misinformation, followed by a question that invites a negative action towards disabled people, is an active choice.

“Framing all this as ‘debate’ does not absolve the programme maker from liability when publishing prejudice and misinformation.

“Hostile media framing has led to disabled people facing prejudice, hostility, aggression and discrimination in real life.

“What has been happening (especially in the past two years) is the equivalent of programmes inviting racists regularly to rant about race.

“Imagine how that would toxify society: yet this is what is being done to disabled people, today.”

She added: “Disabled people need to be put at the heart of the media. Disability is lived reality and not a subject of debate.

“Reporting and debate on issues affecting disabled people, be it welfare or anything else, must be led by disabled people and be done with them, not about them.”

Caroline Richardson, part of the Spartacus network of disabled researchers, said: “Disabled people have been concerned and vocal about content and presentation on programmes such as this for years – but the regulatory bodies ignore complaints, leaving only social media as an outlet for grievances.

“Jeremy Vine has pushed back against these complaints on social media, and ignored the abuse that this then generates in the comments.

“There seems to be a general lack of concern or accountability for the damage resulting from framing and misleading statements.

“Is it too much to ask that people with protected characteristics, who are being centred as the cause of all societal and economic problems, are protected by legislation and common decency from being used as ‘light entertainment’?

“It’s sickening that the misery and poverty of disabled people becomes a revenue stream for lazy production companies who seem to consider punching down as an acceptable genre of entertainment.”

One mental health campaigner, who posts on X/Twitter as @Dawni_Q, told DNS that the abuse and threats directed at Jeremy Vine in recent weeks were “indefensible”, but she said this should not be confused with “legitimate criticism from disabled people and carers”.

She said: “What I find extraordinary is that Jeremy now knows how distressing it feels to believe you’re being misrepresented and judged by strangers, yet seems unwilling to recognise the parallel with what disabled people have been telling broadcasters for years.

“Disabled people didn’t ask to become the story; they asked for a serious conversation about how their stories are told.

“Somehow, the people asking to be heard have ended up being treated as the problem.”

Another disabled activist, Sally Dodgson, said: “The very fact that Jeremy Vine will not accept a decade of the UN reporting increasing media discrimination and consequential attacks on disabled people, tells us he has his own agenda, not an open and humanitarian wish to learn and understand the damage his toxic brand creates in the real world.”