Johnson part of concerted effort to undermine BBC, say insiders

Senior editorial staff are under pressure after the criticisms made in the document by Michael Prescott, a former independent external adviser to its editorial guidelines and standards committee (EGSC).

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Parliament's culture, media and sport committee has demanded to know the BBC's response to the memo by Monday. The BBC's board is compiling its response.

The main criticism in Prescott's memo focused on an edition of Panorama broadcast a week before the US election. He accused the BBC of editing a Trump speech to make it appear clearer that he encouraged the US Capitol attack. A spliced clip suggested Trump had 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.

However, insiders believe the leaking of the memo to the Daily Telegraph and the criticisms that have followed from Johnson are part of an attempt to undermine the organisation, which is heading into charter renewal talks with the government.

Johnson told the Telegraph that Davie “must either explain or resign” over claims in the memo. He said the BBC had been “caught red-handed in multiple acts of leftwing bias”.

Concerns have previously been raised about the role of Robbie Gibb, who joined the BBC board during Johnson's time in Downing Street. Gibb was Theresa May's communications director during her tenure as prime minister and helped launch the rightwing TV channel GB News.