That’s it from us for today. You can read our Heathrow story here:
And for the latest coronavirus news from around the world, head to our global Covid blog:
My colleague Gwyn Topham has more on Heathrow’s plan to create a separate terminal for flights coming from “red list” countries.
It comes after concerns over passengers from destinations with high rates of Covid-19 mixing with other travellers in the arrivals hall.
Britain’s biggest airport said it would introduce the dedicated arrivals facility in Terminal 3 from 1 June. It follows increasing disquiet over incoming flights, particularly from India, where the B.1.617.2 variant was first detected.
With many more passengers expected in coming weeks, after holidays were permitted to resume on 17 May, the airport said it would create the facility to help smooth the immigration process.
Although the airport said the current system – designed by the government – had built-in protection, there have been reports of long queues in immigration halls and experts have questioned the safety of travel with passengers from around the world mixing in airports. Border Force officials have had to spend much more time than before processing documentation, including pre-departure Covid test certificates from abroad.
A Heathrow spokesperson said: “Red list routes will likely be a feature of UK travel for the foreseeable future as countries vaccinate their populations at different rates. We’re adapting Heathrow to this longer-term reality by initially opening a dedicated arrivals facility in Terminal 3 from 1 June for red list passengers arriving on direct flights. We will move this facility to Terminal 4 as soon as operationally possible.
“While opening this facility will be very challenging logistically, our hope is that it will enable Border Force to carry out its duties more efficiently as passenger volumes increase in line with the green list.”
The current red list system will remain in place until June. The spokesperson said there were several layers of protection to keep passengers and staff safe – including mandatory negative Covid tests for all international arrivals, face coverings, social distancing and segregation. Immigration halls have enhanced ventilation and cleaning regimes.
Heathrow had previously said it would not open a dedicated terminal without government financial help, with the cost of opening terminals mothballed since the start of the pandemic in 2020 running into millions. Discussions are being held over the level of assistance.
Updated
Pubs and restaurants in Scotland’s largest city are stuck in an “excruciating situation” and need more financial support, industry bosses have said.
PA has the story:
From next week, Glasgow will be the only place in the UK where establishments are banned from serving alcohol indoors, said the Federation of Small Business Scotland policy chairman Andrew McRae.
The drop to Level 2 means widespread relaxations over rules in hospitality and entertainment, including venues being able to serve alcohol indoors and the reopening of cinemas, theatres and casinos.
McRae said: “Understandably, business owners and their customers are intensely frustrated. While we want to see new financial support for Glaswegian operators, especially those that took on new staff for reopening, we must also see the Scottish government investigate whether a new approach is required for the city.
“If the virus has not been brought under control while Glasgow businesses have faced almost nine months of restrictions, then surely the problem lies elsewhere.”
Glasgow Chamber of Commerce chief executive Stuart Patrick said businesses have already been hit with “hefty financial losses in staff and perishable food costs” after Level 3 restrictions were extended last week, when a move to Level 2 had been anticipated.
He called for more advance warnings for businesses and “much more targeted and appropriate levels of financial support”.
The Scottish government has said affected businesses will receive additional financial support of up to £750 per week, something DRG restaurant chain boss Mario Gizzi has labelled a “joke”.
Updated
Summary
- Justice secretary Robert Buckland suggested Diana, Princess of Wales, was “inveigled” into her infamous interview with BBC Panorama. The minister this morning appeared to suggest the interview “perhaps might not have happened” if “very high standards” had been adhered to at the time.
- Amid suspicion that the government has been awaiting an opportunity to raise existential questions over BBC governance, Buckland said ministers had a responsibility “to look very carefully to see whether the governance of the BBC does need reform in the light of these devastating findings.”
- Former Panorama producer Mark Killick, who was sacked within 24 hours of raising concerns, said the BBC had presided over “a culture of fear” that deterred whistleblowers coming forward.
- Graphic designer Matt Wiessler, who was commissioned to create dubious mocked-up documents, said that the fallout from his attempts to expose the deceit involved in obtaining the Diana interview meant he was blacklisted by the BBC, causing his business to fold.
- The prime minister added to pressure on the BBC, saying he was “obviously very concerned” about the report. “I can only imagine the feelings of the royal family and I hope very much that the BBC will be taking every possible step to make sure nothing like this ever happens again,” he said.
In coronavirus news:
- Boris Johnson said he has not seen any signs that he will have to “deviate” from his plans to scrap all coronavirus restrictions in England by next month, with no intention for so-called vaccine passports to be required to gain entry to pubs.
- However, there are early signs of a potential increase in the percentage of people testing positive for coronavirus, according to weekly data from the Office for National Statistics, amid a slight growth in the R number.
- Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, announced new travel restrictions between Scotland and parts of England where there are “particularly serious outbreaks” of the Indian variant. Glasgow, meanwhile, is the only part of Scotland that will remain at a higher tier of coronavirus restrictions.
- Spain is to lift its restrictions on incoming UK travellers from Monday, but the British government still advises against non-essential travel to the country. The country will also let people from non-EU countries who have been vaccinated against Covid-19 enter the country from 7 June.
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Heathrow airport is reportedly to open a terminal dedicated to arrivals from “red list” countries from 1 June to ensure greater distance between arrivals from countries where there are higher levels of Covid infection and those returning from green and amber list locations.
- The Novavax coronavirus trial has descended into chaos as exasperated volunteers threaten to drop out because they cannot prove they are fully vaccinated on the NHS app, leaving them unable to travel to Europe.
- The latest Sunday Times Rich List suggests UK billionaires have seen their fortunes soar by more than a fifth over the past year in stark contrast with the wider economic turmoil of the pandemic.
Updated
A further nine people have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of today, bringing the UK total to 127,710, the government said.
Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies show there have been 152,000 deaths registered where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
The government also said that, as of 9am today, there had been a further 2,829 lab-confirmed cases in the UK. It brings the cumulative total to 4,457,923.
Heathrow to dedicate terminal for 'red list' arrivals - report
Heathrow airport is reportedly to open a terminal dedicated to arrivals from “red list” countries from 1 June to ensure greater distance between arrivals from countries where there are higher levels of Covid infection and those returning from green and amber list locations.
LBC reports that it understands it will initially be housed in Terminal 3 but would later move to Terminal 4. It comes after transport secretary Grant Shapps said yesterday he wanted passengers arriving from higher risk countries to be segregated from others.
A lot of this is to do with the practicalities, of course, and everybody has to be tested before they are even able to get on to a flight to the UK. But I do want to see people separated out as much as is practically possible and we have asked, and I think Heathrow will respond to this at the beginning of next month.
Back onto Covid-related news, my colleagues Josh Halliday and Helen Pidd report that towns in north-west England such as Bolton and Blackburn-with-Darwen are facing a deep health and economic crisis due to a growing number of long Covid cases keeping people out of work and placing a “double hit” of pressure on the NHS, according to health officials.
Research seen by the Guardian suggests more than 140,000 people in north-west England had long Covid – meaning they had symptoms for at least 12 weeks – last year.
Health teams in coronavirus hotspots said they were increasingly concerned about the long-term impact on children and young people, who account for the vast majority of cases of the highly transmissible Covid variant first identified in India.
Former director of BBC News James Harding has said he takes responsibility for the rehiring of Martin Bashir by the corporation in 2016.
He told BBC News:
It’s distressing for everyone, and it’s depressing for anyone who cares about journalism and the BBC ... I wanted to say so much of what is known now was not known then, and certainly not by me.”
When asked if he knew that Bashir had forged bank statements, he replied: “I didn’t know and in fact if I had he wouldn’t have got the job.”
Harding refused to comment on whether he had discussed rehiring Bashir with then director-general Tony Hall, saying: “The way I think about it is that I was running BBC when Martin Bashir was hired back into BBC News, and so the responsibility for that sits with me.”
Asked whether Lord Hall, who had “intimate knowledge of what Mr Bashir had done around the Diana interview” had “any hand” in recruiting him back into the corporation, Harding replied: “So what I’m saying is BBC News hired Martin Bashir, and so the responsibility for that sits with me.”
Moving back to Martin Bashir’s 1995 Panorama interview with Diana, Princess of Wales, BBC presenters Dan Walker and Huw Edwards have condemned events in 1995.
What happened in 1995 - highlighted in the #DysonReport - was clearly awful.
— Dan Walker (@mrdanwalker) May 21, 2021
The BBC has much to learn but all perspective seems to have been lost by some who are using the findings to attack current members of staff and devalue every element of the corporation.
Edwards, who anchored the BBC’s coverage of the recent funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh, also tweeted: “There is no excuse or justification for what happened in 1995. We are all sickened by it and the subsequent handling of it. For today’s BBC News team - 25 years on - to be lectured on probity and trust by certain parts of the media is somewhat vexing.”
However, he later took down the post, tweeting:
I’ve agreed to take down my earlier tweet because it’s encouraged more attacks on @BBCNews colleagues. That’s the last thing I want. They deserve praise for the work they do. 🙏🏻#DysonReport pic.twitter.com/6c5hSUyL3U
— Huw Edwards (@huwbbc) May 21, 2021
Prime minister Boris Johnson has called for an end to a disunited approach to tackling the pandemic and said countries should resist the temptations of nationalism to protect the world from similar threats in the future.
But if the UK’s approach to US president Joe Biden’s plan for an international agreement on a 21% minimum corporate tax rate – in which it is the only G7 country not to back it – is anything to go by, then perhaps we should take the rhetoric with a pinch of salt.
In a speech to the G20 health summit, Johnson drew a parallel between the pandemic and the plague at the start of Homer’s epic poem The Iliad.
Almost 2,800 years later, the world has been just as disunited I’m afraid as Achilles and Agamemnon. And I think now is the time to come together and to defeat the pandemic and to prevent another.
Now is the time to move away from the temptations of competing nationalism... and instead reassert the power, the duty, the necessity for nations to act together, building collective defence against the common enemy of disease.
The UK is closing on a total of 50 million vaccination jabs after more than 600,000 were administered on Thursday.
A total of 49,682,934 Covid-19 vaccinations have taken place in England between 8 December and 20 May, according to NHS England data, including first and second doses, which is a rise of 601,960 on the previous day.
NHS England said 31,354,838 were the first dose of a vaccine, a rise of 234,818 on the previous day, while 18,328,096 were a second dose, an increase of 367,142.
The Novavax coronavirus trial has descended into chaos as exasperated volunteers threaten to drop out because they cannot prove they are fully vaccinated on the NHS app, leaving them unable to travel to Europe.
Among the 15,000 volunteers who took part, many say they are considering quitting or getting alternative jabs – despite the potential health risks – because the vaccine passport function on the app is not properly set up to accommodate them.
People in England who have had two doses of an approved coronavirus vaccine were able to use the NHS app to confirm their vaccine status for international travel this week. But the app is unable to display details of those who have had their jabs as part of a clinical trial, with frustrated participants left feeling “disadvantaged” as a result.
Nicola Sturgeon has said it “makes more sense” to review coronavirus restrictions on a weekly basis, after announcing Glasgow would be the only area to remain in Level 3 of Scotland’s measures.
PA has the story:
Speaking at a Scottish government coronavirus briefing on Friday, the first minister said authorities are “fairly certain” the increase in cases in the city is being driven by the Indian variant - referred to by Sturgeon as April-02 - with “extensive public health measures” deployed over the past 10 days.
The number of cases per 100,000 people in Glasgow has increased from 71 last week to 122.6 in the seven days to May 18. East Renfrewshire, which earlier this week had a higher seven-day average rate of cases than Glasgow, will remain in Level 2.
Sturgeon also said improvements in Moray mean it can join the rest of mainland Scotland in Level 2 on Saturday.
Infection levels in Moray, in the north-east of Scotland, are down from 98 cases per 100,000 people last week to 37, with test positivity falling from 2.8% to 1.3%.
Sturgeon said the total number of cases in East Renfrewshire is significantly smaller than in Glasgow, with only 17 on Thursday compared to 166 in the city, and could be traced to “specific household clusters”.
Asked whether Glasgow could face restrictions for a longer period because of the numbers, she said: “The reason I’m not saying we’ll come back in three weeks now is I hope the overall duration of these higher level restrictions in Glasgow will be shorter than was the case earlier this year and at the tail end of last year.
“I think it actually makes more sense to review on a weekly basis, because we don’t want to keep Glasgow in higher level restrictions any longer than is necessary... because of the scale of the public health interventions that we have in deployment right now.
“And in determining where to put travel restrictions we just have to be mindful of people’s travel patterns - people might live in the south side of Glasgow but in the city they don’t necessarily stay in the south side of Glasgow all the time because they work elsewhere and vice versa.”
'Nothing in data' to suggest England will deviate from 21 June plan to lift restrictions, says PM
Boris Johnson has said he has not seen any signs that he will have to “deviate” from his plans to scrap all coronavirus restrictions in England by next month, with no intention for so-called vaccine passports to be required to gain entry to pubs.
PA reports:
Speaking to broadcasters in Portsmouth on Friday, the UK prime minister said: “We will be letting everybody know exactly what sort of arrangements to expect for June 21.
“But what I can tell you, and just to stress that I am still seeing nothing in the data that leads me to think that we’re going to have to deviate from the road map - obviously we must remain cautious but I’m seeing nothing that makes me think we have to deviate.
“But on June 21 and vaccine certification - or Covid status certification I should say - people should bear in mind that I don’t see any prospect of certificates to go into pubs or anything else.”
Pressed on whether the public will continue to be asked to wear masks, Johnson replied: “We will let people know as much as we possibly can by the end of the month about weddings, for instance.
“All the details we’ll try and let people know by the end of the month about exactly where we think we’ll be on June 21, Step 4.”
Updated
R value rises slightly to 0.9-1.1
The coronavirus R value has risen slightly to 0.9 and 1.1, which means that, on average, every 10 people with the virus will infect between 9 and 11 other people, according to government data.
Last week’s figure was 0.8 to 1.1.
The growth rate is -2% and 1% , which means that the number of new infections could be broadly flat, shrinking by up to 2% every day, or growing by up to 1% every day.
These estimates represent the transmission of Covid-19 two to three weeks ago, due to the time delay between someone being infected, developing symptoms, and needing healthcare.
Updated
The incoming leader of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party, Edwin Poots, has insisted he will not seek to hasten Arlene Foster’s exit as First Minister, PA reports.
Mr Poots’ comments appear to represent a softening of his stance after he previously indicated party members would decide when Mrs Foster left her role at head of the powersharing executive.
His insistence on Friday that Mrs Foster would be under no pressure from him to bring forward her end of June departure date came after former DUP leader Peter Robinson heavily criticised suggestions she would be forced to leave sooner.
Mrs Foster is standing down as DUP leader next week after an internal coup forced her to quit.
Updated
Downing Street has played down the prospect of the Prime Minister carrying out a Cabinet reshuffle on the same day that his former aide Dominic Cummings gives evidence to MPs, PA reports.
A senior minister reportedly told the BBC that Boris Johnson was planning a shake-up of his top team on Wednesday to distract from the appearance of his former chief advisor Mr Cummings in front of a committee of MPs.
Mr Cummings has been critical of the Government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, and on Wednesday said he had “a crucial historical document” which would expose decision making surrounding the first coronavirus lockdown that he would hand over to the Commons Health and Social Care Committee and Science and Technology Committee to which he will give evidence next week.
However, No 10 played down the suggestion of a reshuffle and the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “It’s not something that we would comment on.”
Boris Johnson has called on the BBC to get its house in order, as a senior minister said damning findings about Martin Bashir’s 1995 Panorama interview with Diana, Princess of Wales, means the governance of the BBC and how it operates will have to be examined, Ben Quinn reports.
Updated
There are early signs of a potential increase in the percentage of people testing positive for coronavirus, according to weekly data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Although rates remain low, the ONS estimated that 49,000 people in England had Covid-19 in the week ending on 21 May, equating to about one in 1,110 people.
In Wales, the percentage of people testing positive remained low, with 700 people in Wales estimated to have Covid-19, equating to about one in 4,340 people.
Data for Northern Ireland and Scotland was from the week ending 15 May, with 1,200 people in Northern Ireland estimated to have Covid-19, about one in 1,550, and 2,700 people in Scotland, about one in 1,960.
Updated
Glasgow to retain tougher coronavirus restrictions
Glasgow is the only part of Scotland that will remain at a higher tier of coronavirus restrictions after the first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, announced that Moray council area would drop to level 2 following measures brought in to tackle an outbreak, PA reports.
Speaking at a Scottish government coronavirus briefing on Friday, the first minister said Glasgow will remain at level 3 for a further week before review.
East Renfrewshire, which has a higher seven-day average rate of cases per 100,000 people at 118.3 than Glasgow, will remain in level 2.
In level 2, people can hug and meet indoors – subject to restrictions – and hospitality venues can open later than in level 3 and serve alcohol indoors.
Speaking about the situation in the Glasgow city council area, Sturgeon said there had been “extensive public health measures” deployed over the past 10 days. But the first minister said: “Despite all the efforts that have been made in the past 10 days, cases are still rising in Glasgow.” She added authorities are “fairly certain” the increase is being driven by the Indian variant of the virus.
Sturgeon said she was “confident” the measures put in place in Glasgow will bring the outbreak there under control but needed a “bit longer to do that”.
Updated
Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has announced new travel restrictions between Scotland and parts of England where there are “particularly serious outbreaks” of the Indian variant, PA reports.
From Monday onwards travel restrictions will be imposed between Scotland the three local authority areas – Bedford, Bolton and Blackburn with Darwen.
Sturgeon said:“If you are planning to visit these areas in the next few days please consider whether you need to make your visit or whether it can be delayed.”
She said it was hoped these rules would not be in place for very long, but added they were “a further way of helping us reduce the risk that any more of this new variant comes into Scotland while we are trying to deal with outbreaks of it we have right now”.
Rachel Hall here taking over from Mattha Busby. Do send over any thoughts, tips or ideas to rachel.hall@theguardian.com
Updated
Boris Johnson calls on BBC to make sure Princess Diana failings can't happen again
As the story continues to dominate the news today, prime minister Boris Johnson has called on the BBC to ensure the events surrounding the interview 25 years ago cannot happen again.
Speaking to broadcasters during a visit to Portsmouth, he said:
I’m obviously concerned by the findings of Lord Dyson’s report - I’m very grateful to him for what he has done. I can only imagine the feelings of the royal family and I hope very much that the BBC will be taking every possible step to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.
For a step-by-step account of what seemed to have happened at the time and subsequently, here is quite a damning piece by the Panorama reporter John Ware.
Updated
Downing Street has said airports are responsible for ensuring those returning from “red-list” countries are separated from other travellers.
Asked about whether No 10 thought airports were doing enough to keep travellers from red list destinations away from others in UK border queues, a spokesman for the prime minister said:
We’ve asked airports to make sure there are mitigations in place to make sure people can socially distance and, where possible, to allow people from red list countries not to have to intermingle with those who have returned from amber or green-list countries. But it is a matter for the airports to ensure provisions are in place.
Earlier this year – amid criticism over crowding – Heathrow said immigration halls were controlled by Border Force officials, who help implement rules around negative Covid tests for passengers, and not by airports.
A spokesperson said at the time:
We’ve been clear since last May really that social distancing in an airport environment isn’t really possible. To put that in context, if you had one aircraft of let’s say 300 people, you’d need a queue about 1km long to socially distance just one aircraft, which is why last summer we mandated face coverings in the airport.
Who shall be responsible for the separate queues remains to be seen.
Updated
Home secretary Priti Patel is the latest minister to comment on the report into the BBC’s handling of Princess Diana’s Panorama interview.
She told Sky News:
With a free press and free media, the media themselves and our broadcasters, and the national broadcaster, has a huge sense of responsibility with the way in which they investigate, review and conduct their own media reports.
So there will be very, very strong searching questions for the BBC post the publication of this report.
Spain is to lift its restrictions on incoming UK travellers from Monday, but the British government still advises against non-essential travel to the country.
The BBC reports that UK tourists going to Spain would still have to quarantine on their return, but would not need a PCR test to enter Spain.
Foreign holidays outbound from the UK have been expressly permitted once again since earlier this week and Portugal will be the main destination on Britain’s so-called green list of countries from where travellers will not need to quarantine upon return.
Updated
The head of MI5 has claimed Facebook’s plans to install end-to-end encryption would hinder counterterrorism investigations.
Amid efforts by MI5 to be more visible, which have included joining Instagram, Ken McCallum, in his first interview, told Times Radio:
If you have end-to-end default encryption with absolutely no means of unwrapping that encryption, you are in effect giving those rare people — terrorists or people who are organising child sexual abuse online, some of the worst people in our society — a free pass where they know that nobody can see into what they are doing in those private living rooms.
The Times reports that MI5 wants Facebook to be able to see content and pass it to the authorities if they provide a judicial warrant.
But the social network’s founder Mark Zuckerberg has been acknowledging privacy concerns and there will be calls from campaigners that planning of serious violence, if any, would represent a minute fraction of overall conversations on Facebook.
There are longstanding concerns over the extent of surveillance upon ordinary people in the UK that were famously brought into focus by Edward Snowden’s revelations. Then, in 2016, a bill giving the UK intelligence agencies and police the most sweeping surveillance powers in the western world passed into law.
Updated
Downing Street has said “negotiations are still ongoing” among ministers amid reports the cabinet is in agreement over a planned trade deal with Australia.
PA has the story:
Prime minister Boris Johnson could reportedly offer Australia a 15-year transition to a zero-tariff, zero-quota trade pact, with the BBC reporting it was understood a cabinet row over the matter had been resolved last night at No 10.
Johnson chaired the meeting of senior colleagues, with international trade secretary Liz Truss and environment secretary George Eustice thought to be at odds over the proposals and the impact they might have on British farmers.
Despite reporting that cabinet was now in agreement over the matter, a Downing Street spokesman said this morning “negotiations are still ongoing”.
Truss, who has said she wants an agreement in principle by early June, is thought to favour a zero-tariff, zero-quota approach in order to boost the flow of trade.
But such a move could leave British farmers vulnerable to competition from beef and lamb producers in Australia, and Eustice has suggested that quotas could be used to protect them.
Asked whether he could give reassurances to British farmers that free trade was not being put ahead of the agricultural sector in the prospective deal with Australia, the justice secretary, Robert Buckland, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Of course I can.”
Updated
Moving away from the Diana interview fallout for now, the latest Sunday Times Rich List suggests UK billionaires have seen their fortunes soar by more than a fifth over the past year in stark contrast with the wider economic turmoil of the pandemic.
PA reports:
The list revealed that there are now a record 171 billionaires in the UK, with Ukranian-born Sir Leonard Blavatnik topping the pile as the richest person in the country.
The number of billionaires jumped by 24%, as millions entered furlough and the rate of unemployment lift to its highest in almost five years.
Wealth among billionaires increased by 21.7% over the year, rising by 106.5 billion to 597.2 billion.
Robert Watts, compiler of the rich list, said: “The global pandemic created lucrative opportunities for many online retailers, social networking apps and computer games tycoons.
“The fact many of the super-rich grew so much wealthier at a time when thousands of us have buried loved ones and millions of us worried for our livelihoods makes this a very unsettling boom.”
In the wake of the release of the report, Prince Harry has told of how the trauma of his mother’s death led him to use alcohol and drugs to mask his emotions and to “feel less like I was feeling”.
He said: “I was willing to drink, I was willing to take drugs, I was willing to try and do the things that made me feel less like I was feeling.” He told Oprah Winfrey he would drink a week’s worth of alcohol on a Friday or Saturday night “not because I was enjoying it but because I was trying to mask something”.
Jon Murray, director of services in England at drug, alcohol and mental health charity With You said he welcomed Harry’s decision to speak out about his issues with alcohol.
Often people who develop an issue with alcohol have experienced trauma in their past. Normalising conversations about these issues and experiences is important. It makes it easier for people to open up and reach out for support.
Updated
Here’s our coverage and editorial from last night in case you missed it, along with Prince William’s statement to camera.
The BBC, the media, and even the Britain described in Lord Dyson’s report on Martin Bashir’s 1995 Panorama interview with Diana, Princess of Wales, may seem in some respects to belong to a bygone era. Most of those involved have departed the public stage, while the princess herself has been dead for nearly a quarter of a century. No one under 30 is likely to have a direct memory of a broadcast that took place when online journalism barely existed. Yet no one who watched the interview will have forgotten it, the explosive impact it made, or the sense that the BBC had pulled off a journalistic coup that left the entire media at home and abroad green with envy.
Lord Dyson’s report is a quietly piercing exposé of the journalistic skulduggery and editorial shortcomings that lay behind this sensational event. The retired senior judge was asked to investigate because Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, made a series of accusations last year about how Mr Bashir, who was relatively unknown at the time and not a senior interviewer, secured the scoop, and about the BBC’s failure to probe his methods adequately. Lord Dyson has pieced the story together more authoritatively than the BBC ever did at the time, or since. As a result, Earl Spencer’s case has been vindicated.
Updated
Going a tad further, on Rupert Murdoch-owned Times Radio, Buckland said the damning report raised questions around the governance of the broadcaster, as senior leadership figures made decisions some 25 years ago that have been “rightly criticised”.
“Doing nothing doesn’t seem to me to be an option here, bearing in mind the very serious nature of what Lord Dyson has found,” he said.
Updated
Here’s a write up of this morning’s discussions by my colleague Ben Quinn.
The crisis for the BBC comes at after a new grouping of figures concerned about the future of public service broadcasting this week accused the government of undermining confidence in Britain’s creative industries with “drip-fed” stories suggesting plans for the privatisation of public broadcasters.
The accusations, made at the launch of the British Broadcasting Challenge group, coincided with the publication of an open letter to the culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, signed by more than 120 people, including the writers Hilary Mantel and Salman Rushdie, who voiced alarm about the BBC’s future.
A strategic review of public service broadcasting is already under way, with an advisory panel appointed by the government in November.
Graphic designer Matt Wiessler, who was commissioned by Martin Bashir to create the mocked-up documents, has said there is a culture within the BBC that it only admits mistakes “under duress”.
He said that the fallout from his attempts to expose the deceit involved in obtaining the Diana interview meant he was blacklisted by the BBC, causing his business to fold.
Wiessler told the Today programme:
I just feel that there is this culture within the BBC that the little people – me being the whistleblower – that we don’t really need to be addressed. Only under duress, do we get some sort of apology and some sort of acknowledgement.
All he had received was a “well-crafted letter” from the BBC at 10pm on Thursday which did “the absolute minimum” to acknowledge how poorly he had been treated, he said. “It’s too little too late - what I now expect, after so many years, is to have real people come forward and speak to me.”
He added: “I didn’t have any work, my business partner had enough work to see us through. But it also broke the company up in the end because he and I fell out because it was very hard ... He was bringing in all the work - the BBC were only ever speaking to him when we did get a bit of work from them.”
Former Panorama producer Mark Killick, who was sacked from the programme within 24 hours when he raised concerns, said the BBC had presided over “a culture of fear” that deterred whistleblowers coming forward.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, he said:
[Wiessler], one of the finest graphic designers of his generation, effectively never worked in that industry again. That’s a tragedy but that’s also a career loss ... I don’t think an apology and ‘let’s all move on’ covers it frankly.
I also think there was a marginal issue with the culture of fear that was established then - it was a long time ago, but they sent a clear message to everyone in the BBC, ‘do not refer up, do not bring the BBC bad news’.
Killick claimed that senior managers at the BBC had fostered a “culture of fear” to deter whistleblowers and orchestrated a smear campaign against its own employees.
I was told we only want the loyal people on the programme - I had been on Panorama for 10 years - and I was effectively let go. That is what happened to whistleblowers at that time.
The Metropolitan police has said it will “assess the contents” of the report “to ensure there is no significant new evidence”.
In a statement, Scotland Yard said:
In March 2021, the MPS determined it was not appropriate to begin a criminal investigation into allegations of unlawful activity in connection with a documentary broadcast in 1995 but should any significant new evidence emerge it would be assessed.
Following the publication of Lord Dyson’s report we will assess its contents to ensure there is no significant new evidence.
Here’s a bit more on Buckland’s thoughts about BBC governance, courtesy of his conversation this morning on ITV’s Good Morning Britain
My colleague, the culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, has rightly said that we should look at the governance structures of the BBC. We will take time to do that - the report that Lord Dyson issued yesterday is 127 pages long, so that needs to be looked at very carefully.
And there may be issues that Lord Dyson wasn’t asked to cover that need to be looked at more widely, so it is a very serious moment for the BBC. They have apologised, which is appropriate, but clearly the wider issues of governance and the way things are run now need to be looked at.
It is clear that the government are also seeking to raise existential questions around the BBC. Buckland has also this morning said it has a responsibility to look at whether the broadcaster needs reform in the wake of the report.
Appearing on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Robert Buckland was asked if the government would use the story as an “excuse” to “tackle the BBC”. He replied:
I don’t think anybody should be using this very serious set of revelations as an excuse to do or not do anything. The facts, sadly, speak very much for themselves.
We’ve heard the reaction of the family and I think it’s incumbent upon everybody to soberly and calmly go through what has happened here, and to make appropriate changes in order to ensure that this sort of thing can never and should never happen again.”
Earlier in the interview, he said:
The government has to, in the light of these serious findings, consider the matter very carefully and comprehensively indeed. Because it wasn’t just the decision of a reporter or a production team, there were decisions made much further up the chain about the conduct of these individuals that have now proved, according to Lord Dyson, to be unfounded and wrong.
And therefore, government does have a responsibility to look very carefully to see whether the governance of the BBC does need reform in the light of these devastating findings.”
On whether the police should be involved, Buckland said:
That, of course, is a matter for the police and the independent prosecutorial authorities and I’m not going to say anything to prejudge or to influence any such line of inquiry.
But I think anybody reading the headlines and the summary of Lord Dyson’s findings will be struck by his use of those words, fraud and deception and the like, and clearly those sort of issues, I’m afraid, could and do arise.”
Asked if a second inquiry was needed to look at wider questions not in the remit of Lord Dyson’s work, such as the treatment of whistleblowers, Buckland said:
I think all of us need to carefully comb through the report and if indeed there are issues that specifically Lord Dyson wasn’t able, due to the remit that he was given to look at, then there should be, and I’m sure there will be, an opportunity to do just that.
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As the repercussions of a highly critical review into the broadcast of Princess Diana’s infamous 1995 Panorama interview continue to ripple, the justice secretary Robert Buckland has suggested she was “inveigled” into it.
The minister this morning appeared to suggest the BBC interview with the Princess of Wales “perhaps might not have happened” if “very high standards” had been adhered to at the time. He told LBC:
Well, I think a lot of us will often say that sometimes the cover-up is worse than the crime. Having listened to both the Duke of Cambridge and the Duke of Sussex, you are struck I think by, at a family level, the sense of tragedy and loss that comes through in their statements.
Let’s just imagine it was any family, not the royal family – I think we should be just as indignant and concerned if somebody who was vulnerable was inveigled into giving an interview that perhaps might not have happened if standards of probity and honesty had been maintained.
And then of course it is compounded by, as you described, a cover-up or a failure to put right and to apply the very high standards that have got to apply to a public service broadcaster like the BBC.
The inquiry into the broadcast, conducted by former supreme court judge John Dyson, found that interviewer Martin Bashir had engaged in “deceitful behaviour” by commissioning fake bank statements to land the interview – a “serious breach” of the BBC’s editorial guidelines.
In his 127-page report, the judge also criticised the conduct of Tony Hall, the corporation’s former director-general, who was accused of overseeing a flawed and “woefully ineffective” internal probe into the issue. As the then head of BBC News, he was aware Bashir had told “serious and unexplained lies” about what he had done to persuade the princess to speak to him, the report said.
The BBC’s current director general, Tim Davie, said the corporation accepted “in full” the report. “Although the report states that Diana, Princess of Wales, was keen on the idea of an interview with the BBC, it is clear that the process for securing the interview fell far short of what audiences have a right to expect,” he said.
The BBC has a handwritten note from Diana stating that the documents played “no part in her decision to take part in the interview”.
When asked whether Bashir had committed “fraud” with the fake bank statements, Buckland said the documents were “hugely serious”:
I think looking at the findings of Lord Dyson, there are clearly some very serious issues arise. I’m not going to comment on whether criminal offences have been committed here. I think that is a matter for the police and the investigating authorities.
You wouldn’t expect me to opine about that. But I’m sure you’ve looked, like me, at the executive summary, it is a 127-page report and you see some of the words being used there – about false documents, forgery etcetera – these are hugely serious matters that don’t just raise questions about the individuals and the journalists involved but also the senior leadership, sadly, who made decisions that Lord Dyson has I think rightly scrutinised and has found to be wrong.
So there is a lot of work for the BBC to do in order to make good what happened here.
