Licence fee payers’ money must not be used to pay off Donald Trump by the BBC over the Panorama editing scandal, former Conservative Culture Secretary Sir John Whittingdale has said.
Mr Whittingdale told Chopper’s Political Podcast that the BBC potentially using licence fee money to pay compensation to the US President would be unacceptable.
On Monday, the President had threatened the corporation with a $1billion-valued lawsuit over the “biased” footage, which aired in a Panorama documentary before his 2024 election triumph.
He gave it until 10pm on Friday to apologise and offer a settlement figure – or face his lawyers in a Florida court.
Since then, Mr Trump has said it is his “obligation” to sue the BBC for defamation after the broadcaster allegedly doctored footage of him in a speech.
Asked about the scandal, Mr Whittingdale said: “They [the BBC] did do him [Trump] a grave injustice. And he is entitled to have that apology. Now, the billion dollar lawsuit – we know Trump. He loves a sort of headline, and he’s a businessman.
“If the BBC said, ‘look, we absolutely got this wrong. We really do apologise. But you’ve got to understand that this is not our money. It’s paid for by the British taxpayer and we would have real problems’.
“And if the British Government made it clear that they were very sympathetic to the request that Donald Trump should accept the apology…
“The licence fee is already becoming more and more unpopular as it goes up each year. And people feel less and less that they need to watch the BBC.
“I think this would just add to the feeling of injustice about being forced to pay a licence fee.”
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