Over 25k Complain About Rightwing Media Hit Job on Southbank Chair

More than 25,000 people have complained to press regulator Ipso over rightwing media coverage of Southbank Centre chair Misan Harriman – four times as many complaints made in the whole of 2025.

And almost 100,000 complaints have been submitted via a tool from media accountability platform NewsCord, which sends emails to Ipso, the newspapers and GB News.

Harriman, who has led the centre’s board of governors since 2021, received negative press coverage for comments he made about the antisemitic Golders Green attack.

The Telegraph reported that Harriman shared a “conspiracy theory” because he questioned why there had been limited coverage of a third victim, Ishmail Hussein, who is Muslim and was attacked at his flat in Southwark hours before last month’s stabbings in Golders Green.

The newspaper later published an article with the headline: “Southbank Centre chief ‘compares Reform victory to Holocaust’”, after Harriman quoted US writer Susan Sontag in a video following the party’s victories in the local election.

He said: “She said when thinking about the Holocaust, 10% of people in any population are cruel no matter what, and 10% is merciful no matter what and the other – this is important – the other remaining 80% could be moved in either direction.

“It’s such a profound way to look at us. In the context of yesterday’s election result it is something which I think is really topical.”

Reform MP Robert Jenrick said the post was “disgusting” and called for him to be removed from his position.

Last week, 245 cultural and political figures including Greta Thunberg, Gary Lineker and Riz Ahmed signed an open letter in support of Harriman, which said: “Trying to silence responsible critics of Israel by smearing them as antisemitic does not protect Britain’s Jewish community”. 

Ipso have received 26,500 complaints about reporting by the Telegraph, Express and Daily Mail. The regulator told Novara Media it is “currently assessing” the complaints.

This compares to over 25,000 complaints which were made about Jeremy Clarkeson’s 2022 column for the Sun in which he said he wanted to see the Duchess of Sussex “paraded naked through the streets of every town in Britain” – Ipso’s most complained about single article ever.

The Telegraph breached the Ipso editors code more than any other news outlet in 2025, according to the regulator’s annual report.

On Instagram, Harriman said the coverage included “accusations of things I objectively did not do which has widely been reported” and said it was “racialised harassment”.