Opposition leader says party would change current system, in which PM has final say on who gets job
Keir Starmer has said Labour would make sure the BBC chair is independently appointed after Richard Sharp’s resignation following his failure to declare that he had helped Boris Johnson get a loan.
The Labour leader suggested the party would reform the system, in which the prime minister currently has the final say on who gets the job.
Continue reading...PM has been accused of defending his former boss, but affair offers chance to put his own stamp on the corporation
Rishi Sunak used to work for Richard Sharp at Goldman Sachs. He brought him into government as an adviser during the pandemic. And on Friday he formally accepted his resignation as BBC chair.
Given the pair’s long relationship, Sharp’s resignation after failing to declare his role in facilitating an £800,000 loan for the former prime minister Boris Johnson might be expected to cause a political problem for the prime minister.
Continue reading...Conservative party accused of undermining broadcaster by flooding it with cronies after chair’s resignation
Rishi Sunak is under pressure to stop appointing Conservatives to key positions at the BBC after Richard Sharp’s resignation prompted criticism the party had undermined the broadcaster by flooding it with cronies.
Sharp quit as BBC chair on Friday morning after an investigation concluded he had failed to disclose key information about his relationship with the former prime minister Boris Johnson when applying for the job in 2021. Sharp helped facilitate an £800,000 loan guarantee for Johnson when he was in the running to take over the broadcaster but did not tell the appointments panel.
Continue reading...Report expected imminently will detail how Sharp came to be recommended for job by Boris Johnson
A potentially damning report on how Richard Sharp was recommended for the job of BBC chair by Boris Johnson is expected to be published on Friday morning.
Sources say the report, by the barrister Adam Heppinstall KC, could prove uncomfortable reading for Sharp.
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PMQs is starting in five minutes.
The Cabinet Office has just published the revised list of ministers’ interests. This is the document that is supposed get updated every six months, but which has not been updated for around a year – partly because it’s the job of the No 10 independent adviser on ministes’ interests (aka, the ethics adviser), and for months the post was empty because two of Boris Johnson’s resigned, and then he gave up trying to find a replacement.
The prime minister’s wife is a venture capital investor. She owns a venture capital investment company, Catamaran Ventures UK Limited, and a number of direct shareholdings.
As the prime minister set out in his letter to the chair of the liaison committee on 4 April 2023, this includes the minority shareholding that his wife has in relation to the company, Koru Kids. The guide to the categories of interest (section 7, pages 4-6) sets out the independent adviser’s approach to the inclusion of interests declared in relation to spouses, partners and close family members within the list. The prime minister’s letter of 4 April is available at https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/38992/documents/191876/default/
Continue reading...Inquiry comes after tax raid on corporation’s offices and a documentary that was critical of PM Narendra Modi
India’s financial crimes agency is investigating the BBC over alleged violations of foreign exchange rules, less than two months after the corporation’s Indian headquarters were raided by tax inspectors.
According to officials, the latest investigation is being conducted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), a central government agency.
Continue reading...Billionaire also says pain level from owning site is ‘extremely high’ but the business is ‘breaking even’
Elon Musk, Twitter’s billionaire owner, has said the social media platform will change the BBC’s label of “government-funded media” after the broadcaster objected to the tag.
The Tesla chief executive made the announcement during a wide-ranging interview with the corporation in which he also said his pain level from running the site had been “extremely high” but claimed the business was now “roughly breaking even”.
Continue reading...Canadian politician, poet, an India MP and journalists are among 120 accounts that have been withheld
Twitter has been accused of bowing to government pressure in India by blocking scores of prominent journalists, politicians and activists from its platform in recent weeks.
The Indian government issued notices to Twitter to remove people in the aftermath of an internet shutdown in Punjab during the search for a fugitive Sikh separatist leader.
Continue reading...Novelist compares UK to Hungary in Radio Times interview, while Ken Bruce criticises handling of Radio 2 exit
The BBC is “under threat, politically,” the novelist Ian McEwan has said, as he compared sections of the Conservative party to the populist right in Hungary.
The author of Amsterdam, On Chesil Beach and Atonement recently collaborated with the BBC Symphony Orchestra for an evening of words and music at the Barbican. The event came as the BBC’s classical music performing groups faced “catastrophic” cuts, and the corporation’s high-profile presenters including Gary Lineker clashed with the government over its policies.
Continue reading...NUJ members’ 24-hour stoppage on 5 May will coincide with the reporting of poll results
BBC journalists in England have announced a second 24-hour strike, to run from midnight on 5 May to coincide with the reporting of local election results, in a dispute over cuts to local radio.
The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) said the broadcaster’s management want local radio stations to share programmes across the network from 2pm on weekdays and at weekends, going from more than 100 hours of local programming on every station each week down to 40.
Continue reading...Corporation rejects freedom of information request from campaigner who claims show is ‘rigged’
The BBC has been accused of “hiding” the extent of its Oxbridge bias on University Challenge in a deepening row about alleged elitism on the show.
The Guardian revealed that Frank Coffield, a Durham-based emeritus professor of education at University College London, is campaigning for fairer entry rules for the show for what he says is a rigged contest.
Continue reading...Poll finds ITV news is more trusted source of information and trust in BBC has slipped
The BBC has slipped behind ITV as Britain’s most trusted news source in the wake of the row over Gary Lineker’s suspension, according to a new poll for the Observer.
The corporation remains one of the most trusted providers, according to the latest Opinium poll. Two in five trust BBC News and 26% distrust it, giving it a “net trust” of +14%. ITV recorded a net trust score of +23%.
Continue reading...Presenters back to cover FA Cup quarter-final after row that nearly cost BBC director general and chairman their jobs
Gary Lineker returned to presenting Match of the Day on Saturday evening after a row that threatened to topple the BBC chairman and director general.
As the former England international introduced live BBC coverage of the FA Cup quarter-final between Manchester City and Burnley, pundit Alan Shearer touched on the recent controversy.
Continue reading...Players criticise the BBC for questioning their integrity and naming individuals without consent
Female football players who fled Afghanistan after Kabul fell to the Taliban in 2021 are criticising a recent BBC article which has labelled some of those evacuated as “false footballers”.
The investigation by BBC Newsnight said some of the descriptions of UK visa applicants as national players or members of a regional team “appear to be false”. The report said there is resentment among “genuine players” now living under Taliban rule.
Continue reading...Downing Street declines to say whether PM has confidence in BBC director-general after furore over Match of the Day presenter
The former journalist and Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell praised Lineker for his “professionalism, accountability and integrity” and Tim Davie for “admitting they got it wrong” after the BBC apology.
Before the BBC statement, the former BBC director of news James Harding told Radio 4’s Today programme that the corporation had got itself into a bit of a muddle over impartiality.
Continue reading...Executives race to resolve Match of the Day presenter standoff as senior Tories stop short of backing Richard Sharp on impartiality
BBC executives are scrambling to repair relations with Gary Lineker and stave off a staff mutiny at the corporation, with hopes that the presenter could be back in post by next weekend.
The row left the BBC’s chair, Richard Sharp, fighting for his future on Sunday night as Jeremy Hunt stopped short of backing him to guard the corporation’s impartiality in the wake of the row.
Continue reading...Corporation’s sports coverage severely disrupted as presenters and pundits pull out in solidarity with Lineker
Match of the Day viewing figures were unaffected by the absence of Gary Lineker on Saturday night.
The shortened 20-minute version of the show had no commentary, presenters, or pundits after staff walked out in solidarity with its host Gary Lineker. Even the show’s theme music was dropped, as the BBC dealt with the fallout after suspending its highest-paid star.
Continue reading...From Alan Sugar and Karren Brady to Richard Osman and Nadiya Hussain, there is nothing new about TV presenters writing about politics
Gary Lineker’s suspension for expressing political views set off an avalanche of comparisons with other BBC stars who have not been similarly sanctioned for lacking impartiality.
Some were obvious: Lord Sugar of The Apprentice, whose 18 years of firing people have been punctuated by political outbursts, from newspaper interviews calling on people to vote Conservative to tweeting a mocked-up image of Jeremy Corbyn sitting next to Adolf Hitler.
Continue reading...Ex-director general says decision to suspend presenter for criticising government’s asylum policies is mistaken
The BBC has undermined its own credibility with its decision to stand Gary Lineker down from hosting Match of the Day because it will be viewed as having bowed to government pressure, its former director general Greg Dyke has said.
Dyke’s comments come after the corporation suspended Lineker on Friday for breaching impartiality guidelines by criticising the government’s asylum policies.
Continue reading...Decision taken after corporation takes its highest-paid presenter off air and his fellow broadcasters refuse to appear in solidarity
Match of the Day will be broadcast without any presenters or pundits this weekend, after the main host, Gary Lineker, was suspended from the BBC for breaching impartiality guidelines over his criticism of the government’s asylum policies.
In a dramatic and unexpected escalation of a crisis that has been brewing all week, the corporation took the decision to take its highest-paid presenter off its flagship football show after he was criticised by Tory MPs and the rightwing media.
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