The BBC’s charter review will examine political appointments to the broadcaster’s board, Lisa Nandy has said, as they have “damaged confidence and trust”.
The culture secretary was asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme whether the BBC board member Robbie Gibb, formerly Theresa May’s communications chief, had overstepped his remit and weighed in on politics.
“There is a real concern, which I share, that political appointments to the board of the BBC damaged confidence and trust in the BBC’s impartiality,” she said.
“That’s something that we will be looking at as part of the charter review, which sets the terms for the BBC for the next decade, and which this government is about to kick off.”
MPs and BBC staff members have called for Gibb to be removed from the corporation’s board as the outgoing director general, Tim Davie, hit out at the “weaponisation” of criticisms of the broadcaster.
In an online meeting with Davie, staff questioned the position of Gibb, who was appointed to the BBC during Boris Johnson’s time as prime minister.
Several said Gibb and all political appointees should be removed from the body. It has been claimed that Gibb pushed accusations of institutional bias that preceded the shock resignation of Davie and Deborah Turness, the head of BBC News.
Their departures over the weekend followed accusations of bias made in a memo by Michael Prescott, a former independent external adviser to the BBC’s editorial guidelines and standards committee. He left that role in the summer.
His memo was leaked to the Daily Telegraph last week and reported over the course of several days.
It included criticism of the way a Panorama broadcast edited footage of a Donald Trump speech, which has since led the US president to threaten a $1bn (£760m) legal action. Prescott made a series of other claims of a more general liberal bias on issues such as trans rights and Gaza.
While the BBC has acknowledged failings, concern has grown over Gibb’s position on the board, amid suggestions that he played a role in both pushing Prescott’s claims and in Prescott being awarded the advisory role. Both Gibb and Prescott have now been summoned to give evidence to the Commons culture, media and sport committee.
On Thursday, the BBC apologised to Trump over the editing of the Panorama documentary.
However, the corporation rejected his demands for compensation. His lawyers had threatened to sue unless the BBC issued a retraction, apologised and settled with him.
The BBC has also agreed not to show the edition of Panorama again.
The programme was broadcast a week before the US election. The spliced clip suggested that Trump told the crowd: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you, and we fight. We fight like hell.” The words were taken from sections of his speech almost an hour apart.
