BBC in meltdown as Tim Davie quits as director-general after Trump and Gaza scandals: Live updates and reaction

The BBC has been warned it faces a ‘last chance’ after the extraordinary meltdown over editing a Donald Trump speech.

Ministers and Labour MPs are scrambling to prop up the national broadcaster following a direct attack from the US President overnight.

Mr Trump described Mr Davie and BBC journalists as ‘very dishonest’ and a ‘terrible thing for democracy’.

The intervention leaves Keir Starmer – who has so far remained silent on the developments – walking a diplomatic tightrope.

Veterans minister Louise Sandher-Jones told Sky News that the BBC is still ‘trusted’.

‘When you look at the huge range of domestic issues, local issues, international issues, that it has to cover, I think its output is very trusted,’ she said.

‘When I speak to people who’ve got very strongly held views on those, they’re still using the BBC for a lot of their information, it’s forming their views on this.

‘I think we can all point to elements of BBC broadcasting of news and say ‘well, that reflects my views, and that doesn’t’ and that’s absolutely right, that we should be able to say that.’

James Landale, the BBC’s Diplomatic Correspondent, has declared he remains ‘proud’ to work for the broadcaster which he described as a ‘shaft of light’ in a ‘darkening world’.

Less than a year into his role, BBC director-general Tim Davie was forced to apologise after an inquiry found that Martin Bashir, a former interviewer for the BBC programme Panorama, had lied to gain his 1995 interview with Princess Diana.

Her sons Prince William and Prince Harry called Bashir’s practices unethical.

Mr Davie acknowledged there had been ‘multiple serious failings’ around the interview.

Huw Edwards, the corporation’s highest-paid newsreader, was suspended from the BBC on full pay after allegations that he had been inappropriately communicating with young men on social media. He was later prosecuted for possessing indecent images of children.

A spokesman for the BBC said the corporation was ‘appalled’ by Edwards’ crimes and that he had ‘betrayed not just the BBC, but audiences who put their trust in him’. Mr Davie later commissioned a workplace culture review following the scandal.

The Mail on Sunday revealed that the opera singer and BBC presenter Wynne Evans made a sexualised remark, using the term ‘spit roast’ in a comment directed at Strictly Come Dancing pro Janette Manrara.

He was later axed from the Strictly tour and dropped from his BBC Radio Wales show.

The BBC broadcast Gaza: How to Survive A Warzone, narrated by a Palestinian boy named Abdullah Al-Yazouri. It was later revealed that his father was a Hamas official.

Mr Davie apologised, saying there had been ‘a significant failing in relation to accuracy’, and the BBC received a sanction from Ofcom.

Gary Lineker left Match Of The Day.

He was suspended from presenting the show after tweets criticised the government’s asylum policy in 2023, with Mr Davie then overseeing a new stance on BBC talent using social media.

Then, in May this year, Lineker shared an Instagram post about Zionism that included an illustration of a rat – an image historically used as an anti-Semitic insult. Although he apologised, he later stepped down from BBC duties altogether.

Bob Vylan’s performance at Glastonbury including the lead singer’s chant of ‘death, death to the IDF’ and f***ing Zionists’ caused outrage.

Mr Davie apologised for the broadcast of ‘offensive and deplorable behaviour’.

The BBC called the decision not to pull the livestream an ‘error of judgment’ and removed the set from on-demand viewing.

The BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit found that the broadcast had breached editorial guidelines.

An independent report found that 45 of 83 claims of misconduct against MasterChef present Gregg Wallace were upheld, as well as an allegation that co-host John Torode had used ‘an extremely offensive racist term’.

Both presenters were dropped but the latest series was still broadcast, with Mr Davie arguing that the show was ‘much bigger than individuals’.

An internal report last week revealed that a Panorama programme, broadcast a week before the US election in 2024, ‘completely misled’ viewers by splicing together two clips of a speech by Donald Trump to make it seem like he encouraged the Capitol Hill riots.

His son, Donald Trump Jr, this week accused the BBC of dishonesty and ‘fake news’.

The chairwoman of the parliamentary committee which will receive a response from the BBC chairman has said Tim Davie was an ‘effective’ director-general but was ‘very slow to act’ following bias concerns.

Dame Caroline Dinenage, who chairs the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that Mr Davie quitting was a ‘very avoidable course of action’.

She told the Today programme:

I’m very sad about Tim Davie stepping down. I think he was an effective leader at the BBC. I think he was a great champion for public service media, but there is no escaping the fact that he was very slow to act on this particular issue. But this isn’t the first time and on this particular issue, Michael Prescott’s report, he just didn’t take it seriously until it was too late.

He should have reacted with concern and examined the claims, but just ignored it.

Dame Caroline added she believes it is a ‘little bit odd’ her committee is yet to hear from Samir Shah who is expected to respond today.

This is the moment a BBC newsreader announced live on air that director general Tim Davie and CEO of News Deborah Turness had quit as the corporation descended into turmoil.

The senior pair sensationally stepped down amid an impartiality row which has rocked the national broadcaster after an internal report accused it of bias and censorship.

Mr Davie admitted ‘mistakes’ had been made after a bombshell report by Michael Prescott, a former adviser to the corporation’s editorial watchdog, accused the BBC of doctoring a speech by US President Donald Trump and censoring the debate on transgender issues, and said its Gaza coverage had been biased.

BBC star Nick Robinson today accused the broadcaster of paralysis over the Panorama scandal that led to the departure of its director general and head of news.

The Radio 4 presenter gave a monologue on the Today programme this morning, sharing his thoughts and observations on the row which has rocked the BBC, leaving the corporation to search for replacements for its two highest positions.

Earlier this morning Mr Robinson, one of the BBC’s highest earners, said these are ‘not normal times’ at the broadcaster as he detailed the scenes from inside this week.

‘Those at the top of the BBC have appeared paralysed last week, unable to agree what to say – not just about the editing of that speech, but wider claims of institutional bias.

‘One source described the arguments ever since Telegraph leaked memo by a former advisor to the BBC Board as “like armed combat”, another alleged “political interference” after what they described as a “hostile takeover” of parts of the BBC.’

The presenter said a statement which was being prepared by BBC News executives, the journalists who run the news division, last week was set to apologise for the mistake.

The chairman of the BBC, Samir Shah, is expected to apologise today in a written statement to Parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) Committee.

MPs wrote to Mr Shah last week to say the BBC has ‘serious questions to answer’ about the Panorama editing of a Donald Trump speech.

Two former Fleet Street editors have shared differing views on the crisis engulfing the BBC today.

Speaking to the Today programme, Lord Charles Moore, once in charge of The Daily Telegraph, said the BBC should ‘take impartiality seriously’.

First thing you have to do is admit you’re wrong instead of trying to defend yourself in this ridiculous way. All the BBC bias goes in one direction… the memo goes, it could go much, much further, but it’s about trans issues, identity, race, (US President Donald) Trump, Israel, Gaza… it’s always from a sort of metropolitan, left position absolutely consistently. That’s how the bias is.

While David Yelland, ex-editor of the Sun, said the resignations of Mr Davie and Ms Turness amounted to a boardroom coup.

It was a coup, and worse than that, it was an inside job. There were people inside the BBC, very close to the board, very close to the, on the board, who have systematically undermined Tim Davie and his senior team over a period of (time) and this has been going on for a long time. What happened yesterday didn’t just happen in isolation.

Donald Trump last night condemned the ‘corrupt’ BBC as he tore into director-general Tim Davie after he resigned in disgrace over a doctored video.

Mr Davie and Deborah Turness, chief executive of BBC News, sensationally stepped down amid an impartiality row which has rocked the national broadcaster after an internal report accused it of bias and censorship.

The US President described Mr Davie and BBC journalists as ‘very dishonest’ as he launched a new attack against the scandal-hit corporation.

Mr Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021, was edited in a Panorama documentary to make it appear he told supporters he was going to walk to the US Capitol with them to ‘fight like hell’.

He branded the broadcaster a ‘terrible thing for democracy’ and said its ‘corrupt journalists’ had been exposed.

Good morning and welcome to our live coverage as the BBC finds itself engulfed in crisis following the resignations of director-general Tim Davie and Deborah Turness, chief executive of BBC News.

The executives have quit following an impartiality row which has rocked the national broadcaster.

The fresh crisis began after an internal report accused it of bias, censorship and doctoring footage of Donald Trump.

The corporation has also come into the firing line over its reports of the war in Gaza and transgender issues.

Join us throughout the day as we bring you the latest updates and reaction on the BBC.