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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Lifestyle
Jacob Stolworthy

Carol Vorderman makes anti-Tory vow after being forced to leave BBC radio show

BBC

Carol Vorderman has issued a promise after being forced to leave her BBC radio show following a disagreement over social media guidelines.

On Wednesday (8 November), the broadcaster and TV personality said would be stepping down as host of BBC Radio Wales’s Saturday morning show due to the crackdown on the corporation’s employees sharing their opinions on social media amid an impartiality row with Gary Lineker.

Vorderman, who had presented the segment for five years, said she would rather “continue to criticie the UK government” than “lose my voice on social media, change who I am, or lose the ability to express the strong beliefs I hold about the political turmoil this country finds itself in”.

After “breaching” her contract with her decision, Vorderman wrote on X/Twitter that “BBC Wales management have decided I must leave” as the contract guidelines, which would have prevented her being able to post any political content “all year round”, were “non-negotiable”.

In a follow-up post that evening, Vorderman, who has been praised by her fellow stars, wrote: “Evening From my heart, thank you for your overwhelming support today. Just bowled over by it. You’re so wonderful, genuinely thank you.”

She then vowed to ”increase calling out this disgusting Tory govt with facts & data which the right wing media fails to publish”.

In a statement to The Independent, the BBC said: “Carol has been a presenter on BBC Radio Wales since 2018. We’d like to thank her for her work and contribution to the station over the past five years.”

Vorderman has become increasingly known for sharing numerous posts criticising the Tory government.

She recently posted a number of critical remarks about Johnny Mercer’s performance as veterans’ affairs minister; the pair have had several public arguments and he has referred to her on X/Twitter as a “deeply unpleasant person”.

Elsewhere, in March, Vorderman called on women’s minister Maria Caulfield to resign after she claimed she could not “be bothered to turn up” to a committee hearing about the menopause.

Carol Vorderman regularly shares anti-Tory posts on social media
— (Getty Images)

Meanwhile, in September, it was reported that Vorderman deleted a number of negative posts about Conservative chair Greg Hands.

Hands had called on her to apologise for what he called “defamatory and damaging” tweets about his involvement in a lifestyle firm being awarded a £25.8m personal protective equipment contract in 2020.

Writing on X, Vorderman said she was “happy to accept Mr Hands’ assurance that his role in the process was simply to refer the approach… [and] there was no impropriety on his part”.

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