Philip Davies, the Conservative MP, has had a heated newsroom exchange with Jon Snow, during which he accused the Channel 4 News presenter of leftwing bias and suggested it was time he retired.
The row occurred while Davies was on a tour of the Channel 4 News offices on Tuesday afternoon and prompted Snow’s colleague Krishnan Guru-Murthy to intervene to ask the MP to leave.
Numerous Channel 4 News journalists witnessed the verbal bust-up, which sources present said lasted about 10 minutes, as Davies was looking round the ITN building where Channel 4 News is made on Gray’s Inn Road in central London.
“It was quite extraordinary,” said one witness of the unexpected exchange as Snow and Guru-Murthy prepared for Tuesday night’s edition of the award-winning programme.
The Tories were nothing if not even-handed in their criticism of news broadcasters on Tuesday, with culture secretary Sajid Javid telling a committee of MPs, including Davies, earlier in the day that he used to watch Newsnight “but not so much anymore”, indicating that the BBC2 current affairs flagship programme was not as compelling since Jeremy Paxman’s departure.
Davies, who has previously criticised Channel 4 for being “too politically correct”, said that he did not watch Channel 4 News, accused Snow and the programme of leftwing bias and questioned whether Snow, now 67, should retire, according to shocked ITN staff who witnessed the exchange.
It was around this point that Guru-Murthy intervened in the row, according to onlookers, estimated to have numbered up to 50 ITN staff.
“Krishnan stepped in and said if the attack was going to get personal on his colleague, then he should probably leave the newsroom,” said a source. “It would have been more amusing had it been on TV in the studio.”
Davies confirmed to the Guardian that he had visited Channel 4 News on Tuesday as part of a wider tour of the ITN building, but declined to comment further. His tour included a visit to ITV News, which is also made by ITN out of Gray’s Inn Road.
A Channel 4 News spokeswoman said: “We were pleased to welcome Philip Davies MP to Channel 4 News yesterday.
“Our journalists never shy away from a full and frank discussion, and Jon Snow and Mr Davies had a robust exchange of views.”
The row came on the same day that Davies’s fellow Conservative MP, Sajid Javid, criticised BBC2’s Newsnight.
Davies visited ITN on Tuesday after quizzing new BBC Trust chair Rona Fairhead about the future of the corporation, in his role as a member of the Commons culture, media and sport select committee.
The MP for Shipley, who had numerous tetchy exchanges with Fairhead’s predecessor Lord Patten during culture committee hearings, asked the BBC Trust chair: “Have you gone native in record time?” Fairhead replied: “Absolutely not”.
Javid, also appearing before the culture select committee to give evidence on the future of the BBC, said he used to be a fan of Newsnight, now anchored by Evan Davis following the departure of Paxman.
“It’s not that it is too late … I don’t find it as compelling viewing as it was before,” Javid told MPs. “Maybe it has something to do with when one of the presenters left or something.”
However, Javid revealed himself to be a Doctor Who fan, telling MPs it was the one BBC show he never missed.
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