BBC rules 'moneybags Rothschild' comment not antisemitic

The BBC's complaints body ruled on Tuesday that usage of the phrase 'moneybags Rothschild' was not antisemitic due to there being no explicit mention of the family's Jewishness, according to a report in the Jewish Chronicle.

The comment was made by horticulturalist Bunny Guinness on episode of BBC Radio Four's Gardeners’ Question Time aired in February after a fellow panelist said he would buy a plant from a shop rather than grow one from a cutting.

A Jewish listener filed a complaint with the BBC and received an initial response that the BBC was "unable to agree that it was in any way antisemitic."

The listener escalated the complaint to the BBC's highest complaints body Editorial Complaints Unit which subsequently ruled that the phrase would not "perpetuate prejudice" because "the Jewishness of the Rothschild family was not referred to".

In documents seen by the Jewish Chronicle the ECU complaints director defended the decision saying he could "see the potential for offence arising from the associations with the antisemitic canard you cite." He said that he was sorry the listener found the comment offensive.

“There is a clear distinction between a comment about a named family, one who were famed for the extent of their private fortune, and one about Jewish people more generally,” he wrote.

This comes one month after the British Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said there were 'unfortunately' many instances of antisemitism at the BBC.