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BBC chair Samir Shah has admitted the broadcaster made an “error of judgement” in the way it edited a speech by Donald Trump but criticised a leaked memo that led to the resignation of the corporation’s two top executives.
In a letter to MPs on Monday, Shah said that concerns about bias raised in the memo by former outside adviser Michael Prescott did not present a “full picture” of decision-making at the BBC.
The memo from Prescott, a former political editor of the Sunday Times, accused the BBC of a series of failures in its coverage of Trump, the Gaza war and the rights of transgender people. Prescott claimed his concerns had been ignored by BBC executives.
Shah said the Prescott memo, which has triggered a crisis at the public broadcaster, was a “personal account” and argued that it was “not true to say that concerns have been ignored”.
However, he said that the broadcaster had concluded that its edit of a clip from an inflammatory speech Trump made in Washington on January 6 2021 “did give the impression of a direct call for violent action” to his supporters, who stormed the Capitol building that day.
“The BBC would like to apologise for that error of judgement,” Shah added.
Trump on Monday threatened to take legal action against the BBC over the edit of the video of the speech. A spokesperson for the broadcaster said it would review the legal letter from the White House and “respond in due course”.
Shah’s letter in response to the memo came after the surprise resignations of BBC director-general Tim Davie and BBC News head Deborah Turness at the weekend. Their exits came after the White House called the BBC a “leftist propaganda machine”.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said on Monday that he spoke to Trump on Friday as the BBC crisis unfolded. He said the US president was “very, very unhappy” about it, adding: “I think it is very, very damaging.”
On Monday, Downing Street defended the corporation, expressing its “huge support for a strong and independent BBC”.
Asked if Sir Keir Starmer thought the BBC was “corrupt”, as Trump has claimed, the prime minister’s spokesperson replied: “No.” He added that Starmer did not think the broadcaster was institutionally biased.
However, one media executive close to the corporation described the row as representative of a wider “struggle for the soul of the BBC”, adding: “They need a much tougher chair.”
The BBC’s board has also been heavily criticised over its handling of the crisis, which has exposed rifts at the top of the organisation and sparked claims of a politically motivated coup against its leadership.
The board, which will decide the next director-general following Davie’s departure, is made up of the leaders of the major divisions of the corporation and five members appointed by the government.
The body failed to agree an apology last week despite the efforts by Turness to address the mounting scandal, according to three people with knowledge of the situation.
Nick Robinson, presenter on the BBC’s Today programme, said on Monday that “those at the top of the BBC have appeared paralysed for the past week — unable to agree what to say not just about the editing of Donald Trump’s speech by Panorama but also wider claims of institutional bias”.
Former Sun editor David Yelland described the leak of the letter and its fallout as a “coup” led by senior members of the BBC.
Liberal Democrat MP Anna Sabine said Davie’s resignation “raises serious questions about whether bad actors are interfering in the BBC’s independence”.
Robinson said that a majority of the board appeared to agree with Prescott “that there is a problem of institutional bias reflected in the coverage of Donald Trump, Gaza/Israel and trans rights”.
He added that “that argument has been led by one board member Sir Robbie Gibb” — previously director of communications for former Conservative prime minister Theresa May.
BBC executives said that Gibb, who was appointed to the board by Boris Johnson’s government in 2021 and had earlier spent 23 years at the BBC, had not been supportive of Turness and her handling of the newsroom in particular. But they added that he had wanted Davie to remain in his position.
Gibb and Prescott are friends, according to people with knowledge of the situation.
The Johnson government also appointed Prescott as external adviser to the BBC standards board.
One media executive said there “was leftwing bias at the BBC that they are constantly trying to fight but the answer is not to bring in rightwing bias”.
Davie had survived previous crises including over controversial social media posts by Gary Lineker and allegations over former presenter Huw Edwards.
Additional reporting by Mari Novik
