The shock exit of the BBC’s top executives following a dispute over impartiality has come at the worst possible time for the national broadcaster as it faces existential questions over its future role in British society.
Amid claims by insiders of a rightwing board “coup”, the BBC’s deepest crisis in recent history has revealed tensions over how it is run and how it maintains editorial standards.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey on Monday night called for the removal from the board of former Conservative director of communications Sir Robbie Gibb, an influential voice who has been described by insiders as leading the argument about institutional bias at the BBC.
Davey said Gibb has “repeatedly been accused of interfering with editorial decisions in a way that is totally unacceptable for a member of the board — especially such a party political appointment”.
Gibb did not respond to requests for comment.
The scandal was sparked by complaints by former independent adviser Michael Prescott over the BBC’s coverage of the Gaza war and gender identity issues as well as accusations that a documentary about Donald Trump was edited to show his comments in a misleading way. This has left the broadcaster facing the threat of a $1bn lawsuit from the US president.
BBC chair Samir Shah on Monday finally responded to the bulk of Prescott’s allegations in a letter to Caroline Dinenage, the chair of the Commons culture, media and sport committee. Shah apologised for an “error of judgment” in the editing of the Trump speech but firmly defended other parts of the BBC’s wider coverage.
His response came a day too late for director-general Tim Davie, who resigned on Sunday along with Deborah Turness, boss of BBC News. She had been pushing for a quicker response to the mounting scandal but was said by BBC insiders to have been blocked by the board.
Asked if there was a political agenda at work or whether members of the board had orchestrated a politically motivated coup, Shah said it was “a fanciful notion of what happens at the board”.
“The suggestion of a coup is fanciful,” he said. “The board is not a bunch of wet people who just fall over.”
One ally of Gibb said he had consistently supported Tim Davie and had wanted him to stay, adding: “The allegation that there is a conspiracy is absolute nonsense. The bulk of the Prescott report is based on the analysis and research of [the BBC’s] David Grossman who works for editorial policy, not Michael Prescott.”
Shah said neither he nor anyone else on the board had wanted Davie to leave, but the director-general had taken the decision for personal reasons having recently been “through a lot of attacks . . . It’s been relentless”.
Davie’s resignation left BBC staff in shock. Last week those close to the corporation believed his job was safe, with one suggesting it was not the biggest crisis to face the director-general over the past year.
From the conviction of disgraced TV presenter Huw Edwards to controversy over its Glastonbury coverage, Davie has faced repeated criticism during his rocky four-year tenure. As the nation’s publicly funded broadcaster, the BBC has been a political punchbag for all sides of the fevered culture wars.
Insiders admit the BBC has often been at fault. But the scandals have been amplified by a hostile cohort of rightwing politicians and media allies, who believe the broadcaster is institutionally biased in favour of the left and object to the way the licence fee works.
Media executives and Labour politicians have questioned the motivation behind Prescott’s memo and leak to the Telegraph newspaper. Former Sun editor David Yelland argued “the fall of Tim Davie is a victory for populists, for a cabal of toxic plotters with links to the BBC board — who designed and executed a coup — and the circular firing squad in the UK press”.
Veteran BBC journalist John Simpson, said: “We’ve now got a real fight on our hands to defend public service broadcasting, because that’s under threat too.”
Culture secretary Lisa Nandy was under growing pressure from some MPs on Monday night to defend the BBC. She said on Sunday morning — just hours before Davie and Turness resigned — that there had been “a series of very serious allegations” and “too many [mistakes] to name” made by the BBC since Labour won the general election in July last year.
One media industry figure said the BBC was likely to get pushed further to the right. “If Labour aren’t worried about it, they should be worried about it. The idea seems to be to make the BBC more frightened of its own shadow,” they said.
This threat is especially acute for the BBC as its executives prepare for crucial negotiations with the government over its future direction and funding when the broadcaster’s charter comes up for renewal in 2027.
One BBC executive warned the outcome of the talks could prove “existential” as it fights for long-term relevance in the global media industry, competing with deep-pocketed streamers such as Netflix and YouTube.
But there is more at stake than just money, executives say. Young people are not as loyal to the national broadcaster as previous generations, they warn, and digital rivals have less need to follow the BBC’s costly guardrails over fairness, impartiality and universality.
The government is planning to release a green paper on options for the future of the BBC, including on the crucial topic of how the corporation is funded, by the end of this year. With budgets on a knife edge, insiders say the broadcaster’s departments are under intense pressure to cut costs.
It will be up to the next director-general of the BBC to champion the corporation’s vision in these discussions with ministers. Media executives say possible candidates for the job include former Channel 4 boss Alex Mahon, All3Media chief executive Jane Turton and Jay Hunt, the creative director for worldwide video and Europe for Apple’s streaming service.
Sir Ben Bradshaw, a former Labour culture secretary, said: “There’s clearly a paralysis, or a division, or arguments on the board which are making it impossible for the board to function in a quick and effective way to both rectify mistakes but also to defend the integrity of the BBC against its many enemies.”
There are now calls to reform the appointments process for the BBC board, with the chair as well as four other members chosen by the government.
Labour MP Clive Lewis said there was an argument to stop all government appointments to the BBC. He added: “The government and culture secretary need to come forward with a set of proposals for the corporation’s future.”
Some BBC executives warn Labour has yet to properly grasp the importance of the charter negotiations. “[Sir Keir] Starmer’s most long-lasting legacy might be the survival or otherwise of the BBC,” one said.
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