MPs and BBC staff call for Gibb to leave board

MPs and BBC staff members have called for the board member Robbie Gibb to be removed from his post as the corporation's outgoing director general, Tim Davie, hit out at the "weaponisation" of criticisms of the broadcaster.

- Michael Savage

During an online meeting with Davie, BBC staff questioned the position of Gibb, Theresa May's former communications chief who was appointed to the BBC's board when Boris Johnson was prime minister.

Several said Gibb and all political appointees should be removed from the board. It has been claimed that Gibb pushed accusations of institutional bias at the BBC that preceded the shock resignation of Davie and Deborah Turness, the head of BBC News, over the weekend.

Their departures 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 several days.

It included criticism of the way an episode of Panorama spliced together parts of Donald Trump's speech on 6 January 2021, the day the US Capitol was stormed. The US president has threatened a $1bn legal action.

Prescott made other claims of a more general liberal bias on issues such as trans rights and the war in Gaza.