BBC accused of 'brainwashing' schoolchildren through promotion of 'extreme' left-wing views on migration, Net Zero and inequality

Max Thompson, Campaigns Officer

22 October 2026

Another week, another poor news story for the already embattled BBC.

A Mail on Sunday investigation has revealed that the BBC Bitesize website has been promoting what the newspaper described as "extreme" left-wing views on migration, Net Zero, and inequality to millions of pupils across the country.

One of the most alarming discoveries is that BBC Bitesize — a tool used by nearly every state school in the country — encourages young students to play a game called Increasing Immigration, in which they are rewarded for selecting "open borders" and granting an amnesty to illegal migrants.

BBC Bitesize is a huge resource for schools and one of the most prominent educational websites in Britain: it has been reported that half of all children aged between four and sixteen use it, and almost 1.7 million children use it every week.

The madness does not stop there. The website also implies that those who voice legitimate concerns about migrants taking jobs from local people are "prejudiced", and accompanies this with a plethora of claims that migration has economic benefits. Unsurprisingly, the website does not set out the economic costs of migration, nor does it differentiate between the different types of migration.

It also appears that the website is advocating a borderless world, with a video for Welsh geography students stating: "As technology evolves... the question remains: can we learn to live with globalisation? And with it, fulfil the promise of a truly borderless world."

And no, none of this is an April Fools' Day joke.

Since the Mail on Sunday revealed this news, the BBC has responded by stating that students are not rewarded for choosing political positions, and that players also receive rewards for training local people and closing borders.

The BBC has faced serious criticism over the last year, which has significantly damaged its reputation as a purportedly impartial broadcaster. This latest revelation will only add fuel to claims that the national broadcaster is plagued by political bias, following a number of high-profile scandals, including the doctored speech by President Trump.

The website encourages children to campaign for clearly contentious and politically charged causes such as Net Zero, and to join human rights activist groups such as Amnesty International. It also sings the praises of the Black Lives Matter campaign and of left-wing activists like Greta Thunberg.

Net Zero is listed as an "important goal", and children are encouraged to campaign against slavery and to look up to particular political idols on the left.

In the wake of the Mail on Sunday's findings, Danny Cohen, a former controller of BBC Television, called for an urgent investigation. He said: "The BBC needs to explain why its educational website is pushing extreme Left-wing ideologies to schoolchildren. There is such a lack of balance in so many areas of the BBC's output that it cannot be seriously defended as coincidental."

The Conservative MP and Shadow Education Secretary, Laura Trott, demanded that the BBC remove the immigration game from the website, and stressed that the broadcaster has a duty to remain impartial and not to use learning tools as a vehicle to promote a left-wing political agenda — in essence, to indoctrinate young children.

Another Shadow Cabinet Minister, Alex Burghart, told the Mail on Sunday: "The BBC was set up to inform, educate and entertain — not misinform, re-educate and brainwash." A former Conservative Education Secretary, Sir Gavin Williamson MP, said: "The mask has slipped and the BBC has yet again betrayed its rampant Left-wing political agenda. The state broadcaster brainwashing children using a homework game is like something from a North Korean re-education camp."

Read more in the Mail on Sunday.