BBC confirms complaints over Ranganathan and Croft's charity choices

The BBC has confirmed that complaints were received about the refugee charities to which The Celebrity Traitors winners Romesh Ranganathan and Sebastian Croft directed their prize money. It said it had passed the feedback on.

In an update to its complaints page, the BBC said: "We recognise that some audience members were unhappy with the charities chosen by the winning celebrities," It added, "This feedback has been shared with the relevant parties." The number of complaints was not immediately known.

Ranganathan, 48, and Croft, 24, won the show in October, sharing an £83,000 prize. Croft, the Heartstopper actor known as Bash, donated his £41,500 share to Choose Love. Ranganathan chose the Refugee Council.

Choose Love, previously called Help Refugees, helps refugees and displaced people worldwide. The Refugee Council helps people who fled war, violence and persecution find safety and rebuild their lives in Britain.

On Croft's Sunday Scaries podcast, Ranganathan said some comments had called his charity choice a disgrace. He said he chose the Refugee Council because he was "so fed up with the rhetoric against refugees."

"Look, people have different opinions, but I feel like (refugees are) a distraction tactic, and people are being pointed in that direction for something to blame, is my personal opinion," Ranganathan said on the podcast.

Ranganathan said the winners' selection of two charities supporting refugees was entirely coincidental. According to the Daily Mail, he also said a person had urged him by message to retract his donation, warning of serious trouble for his career; he replied, "I'm on everything!"

"It felt like such a nice moment at the time, but then to see the response, what it made me realise is that's people's response to a game show donating money to really vulnerable people," Croft said. "Imagine how difficult it is for those people navigating that system."

Some objectors said groups taking positions on disputed policy questions should not receive money from the licence fee, GB News reported. Its presenter Alex Armstrong asked why the winners had not picked causes for British people, including veterans, people experiencing homelessness or cancer patients.

Conservative MP Jack Rankin earlier accused the BBC of falling short of its charter duty on impartiality over the charity choices. "The BBC are supposed to be impartial and should not be handing money to political activists," Rankin said.

"If they had any backbone, they would refuse to let public funds bankroll pro–migrant crusades," Rankin said earlier. The source of the prize money, whether licence fees or other funds, was not known.

Richard Osman, host of The Rest Is Entertainment podcast, had previously challenged the licence fee argument. "You cannot be that stupid to not know that The Traitors makes a fortune for the BBC," Osman said. "It's giving huge amounts of money back to the BBC, this show, this is not something that's a drain on licence fee payers."

In October, both charities welcomed the money. Choose Love's acting chief executive Emma Stevenson said at the time that the charity was "absolutely thrilled and deeply grateful" to Croft and that the funding would support refugees and displaced people, especially LGBTQ+ individuals.

Refugee Council chief executive Katie Ghose said in October that Ranganathan's victory was "the icing on the cake."

The BBC gave no indication of any further action.