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    Senior BBC Journalist Taken Off Election Coverage For Calling UKIP Racist

    BBC News channel boss Jasmine Lawrence urged people not to vote UKIP on Twitter yesterday, in breach of the BBC's impartiality rules.

    The BBC has reprimanded a senior journalist for saying UKIP supporters are sexist and racist.

    The #WhyImVotingUKIP hashtag went viral this week in the run-up to today's elections, with people suggesting both genuine and sarcastic reasons.

    But this incident will be seen as highly embarassing for the BBC, which takes very seriously any allegation that its staff have a liberal bias.

    A BBC-commissioned survey in 2011 found that many viewers "saw the BBC as being left-wing or liberal in its programming" while others complained of a lack of impartiality.