Comedy panel show repeated false rumour Euan Blair would profit from ID card plan

Friday’s episode of Have I Got News For You has had to be re-edited after wrongly claiming a company founded by Tony Blair's son would have profited from Labour’s planned introduction of digital ID cards.

The show briefly disappeared from iPlayer while the unfounded claim – descried by the BBC as an ‘unintentional editorial oversight’ – was cut.

The comment came when host Victoria Coren Mitchell asked the teams who was set to benefit from the policy, before explaining :  ‘I was thinking of the company Multiverse, who has been chosen to run the digital ID cards scheme.’

She then explained Multiverse was  founded by Euan Blair – repeating misinformation that had spread on social media.

When the rumours began to swirl, Multiverse issued a statement saying: ‘Just to reassure, we are remaining a training provider, not an app provider, even for £100 billion…

And fact-checking organisation FullFact has also said: ‘This isn’t true, according to both the government and Multiverse… The government has not announced any partner for the project.

Coren Mitchell has addressed the blunder on X, writing: ‘If you see a clip of me saying the ID card contract has gone to Tony Blair's son: it hasn't.

‘That was something I was given to ask about last night, but turns out to be incorrect. Which is bad news for the fact checkers but good news for social mobility.’

In a statement given to several outlets, the BBC said: ‘This week’s Have I Got News for You contained an inaccurate story about Euan Blair’s company, Multiverse, being chosen to develop the government’s contract to produce digital ID cards.

‘Multiverse is not a software developer and there is no evidence of any involvement in the proposed digital ID scheme, therefore we have taken the episode off BBC iPlayer while we edit the relevant section out. We apologise for this unintentional editorial oversight.’

And a government spokesman told the Daily Express: ‘Claims that Multiverse has been chosen to develop the Government’s digital ID app are false.

‘No decisions have been made on its delivery, but we expect it to be designed, built, and run by in-house Government teams - not outsourced to external suppliers.’

The news comes as the programme’s makers, Hat Trick, announced a pre-tax profit of almost £857,000 last year, compared to a pre-tax loss of £377,000 in 2023.

It came after the company  –which also makes Mastermind and Derry Girls  – launched a successful US edition of the panel show.

The profits meant a dividend payout of  £900,000 to company founder Jimmy Mulville and £100,000 to chairman Patrick McKenna.

Dame Sheila Hancock and Miles Jupp were guest panellists on this week’s episode – the first in the show’s 70th series – and it returns next Friday with Stephen Mangan and former special adviser to Sajid Javid, Salma Shah. 

Published: 5 Oct 2025