BBC to overhaul standards panel as fallout from bias row continues

New deputy director general post also set to be created in changes

- Michael Savage Media editor

The BBC is planning to overhaul the way it investigates editorial concerns, in a move that will dilute the influence of a Conservative figure accused of trying to sway its political impartiality.

A new deputy director general post is also expected to be created to aid Tim Davie's successor as director general, after concerns that the task of overseeing the corporation had become too big for one person.

The measures are being prepared as the BBC reacts to a crisis that led to the sudden resignations of Davie and Deborah Turness, the head of BBC News.

They left after difficult board-level discussions over claims of liberal bias made in a memo by Michael Prescott, a former independent external adviser to the BBC's editorial guidelines and standards committee (EGSC). Prescott left that role in the summer.

Key figures in the row - including Prescott, Robbie Gibb, the influential Conservative-appointed board member, and Samir Shah, the BBC chair - will appear before MPs today as the culture, media and sport committee examines the memo and a crippling disagreement over how to respond to it.

The pressure on Shah and Gibb rose before today's session with the resignation on Friday of board member Shumeet Banerji. Banerji said in a letter that he was resigning over “governance issues” and had not been consulted over the events that led to the departure of Davie and Turness.