Donald Trump threatens legal action against BBC over Panorama scandal: Live updates

Donald Trump has threatened legal action against the BBC over a Panorama documentary which edited one of his speeches.

According to BBC News, the US President has sent a letter after it emerged more than 500 complaints have been lodged in response to an editing scandal involving him.

BBC chairman Samir Shah earlier confirmed the corporation has received communication from President Trump, adding: ‘We are now considering how to reply to him.’

Mr Shah also said he does not believe there is a ‘systemic bias of anti-Israel’ at the BBC following claims by former adviser Michael Prescott.

Mr Prescott claimed there was ‘anti-Israel bias’ in BBC Arabic’s coverage, writing several contributors selectively covered stories that were critical of Israel.

But Mr Shah said the BBC was home to ‘excellent impartial journalism’ across the organisation.

It’s disrespectful to BBC journalists up and down the country, across the world, to characterise them because of a mistake.

Samir Shah has told the BBC he did not want to lose Tim Davie following the director-general’s resignation last night.

Asked for his response about BBC News CEO Deborah Turness’ decision to step down, the BBC chairman said it is not down to board members to decide who should stay in post.

I did not want to lose Tim Davie nor did any member of the board. We were upset by the decision. My job now is to ensure a smooth transition.

Civil war has broken out at the BBC today as one of the executives fired over the editing of a Donald Trump speech insisted the corporation remains the ‘world’s most trusted news provider’.

Deborah Turness, who quit yesterday, turned up for work at Broadcasting House in London this morning and said that the corporation is not ‘institutionally biased’ or ‘corrupt’ as the President claims.

Hours earlier presenter Nick Robinson launched into an extraordinary monologue on the Today programme that appeared to play down the impartiality scandal that has brought down the Director General and his CEO of BBC News.

Mr Robinson said that there were ‘no complaints about the editing of Donald Trump’s speech’ when it was broadcast in 2024 and hinted politics were at play at the top of the corporation, describing the board as being in a state of ‘paralysis’.

Experts have said his words reveal some senior BBC News staff are at war with the BBC board and came as its chair Samir Shah has said the corporation would like to ‘apologise for that error of judgment’ over the editing of a speech by Donald Trump for Panorama.

Read the Daily Mail’s top story by Martin Robinson here:

The BBC is not corrupt nor institutionally biased, Downing Street has said, appearing to hit back at claims by US President Donald Trump and Nigel Farage.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman told reporters:

On the question of is the BBC corrupt?: No. The BBC has a vital role in an age of disinformation… where there’s a clear argument for a robust, impartial British news service to deliver, and that case is stronger than ever.

I think I’ve already addressed some of the comments that have been made over the last 24 hours, but we are of the view that it’s important that the BBC acts swiftly to maintain trust and correct mistakes quickly when they occur.

The spokesman was also asked if Sir Keir Starmer believed the BBC was institutionally biased, and replied:

No, but it is important that the BBC acts to maintain trust and correct mistakes quickly when they occur, because as I say, for any public service broadcaster, accountability is vital to maintain trust.

The spokesman would not say whether the future of the BBC licence fee was on the table as part of a wider review of the broadcaster’s charter.

BBC chairman Samir Shah has said he ‘doesn’t know’ if Donald Trump will take legal action against the BBC over the editing of a speech that was broadcast on Panorama

Speaking to the BBC’s Culture Editor Katie Razzall, Mr Shah said he had now received communication from Mr Trump’s team and that is considering whether to apologise to the President personally.

Asked if Mr Trump is suing the BBC, the chairman replied: ‘I don’t know that yet, but he’s a litigious fellow so we should be prepared for all outcomes.’

Mr Trump has previously submitted lawsuits against US media outlets including The New York Times and Wall Street Journal over its coverage of him.

Samir Shah said the editing of the speech by Donald Trump has attracted ‘significant attention’ because concern was expressed over the way the Panorama episode was edited.

The BBC’s editorial guidelines and standards committee was told by BBC News the purpose of editing the clip was ‘to convey the message of the speech made by President Trump so that Panorama’s audience could better understand how it had been received by President Trump’s supporters and what was happening on the ground at that time’.

The issue was ‘considered and discussed as part of a wider review of the BBC’s US election coverage, commissioned by the committee, rather than handled as a specific programme complaint, given it had not attracted significant audience feedback and had been transmitted before the US election, so the point wasn’t pursued further that that time’, he added.

The points raised in the review were relayed to the Panorama team, including the decision making on this edit. With hindsight, it would have been better to take more formal action.

BBC chairman Samir Shah said it is ‘simply not true’ that Michael Prescott ‘uncovered’ issues that the BBC has sought to ‘bury’.

There is another view that has gained currency in the coverage that the BBC has done nothing to tackle these problems. That is also simply not true.

During Mr Prescott’s time as an adviser, Mr Shah says the BBC published corrections to inaccuracies, made leadership changes to address underlying issues and took disciplinary action.

Mr Prescott spent three years as an independent external adviser to the broadcaster’s Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee (EGSC) before leaving the role in June.

He sent a damning internal dossier to the BBC Board last month after repeated warnings to the standards watchdog were ‘dismissed or ignored’.

BBC chair Samir Shah has said the corporation would like to ‘apologise for that error of judgment’ over the editing of a speech by Donald Trump for Panorama.

In a letter to the CMS committee, Mr Shah said there have been more than 500 complaints since the publication of the memo that raised concerns about the editing of the speech by Donald Trump, adding: ‘We accept that the way the speech was edited did give the impression of a direct call for violent action.’

BBC chairman Samir Shah has provided a statement to Parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee.

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

This post will be updated

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has said he has spoken to Donald Trump about the BBC which he claimed has been ‘institutionally biased for decades’.

Speaking in London, the Reform leader said:

I actually spoke to the president on Friday. He just said to me: ‘Is this how you treat your best ally? It’s quite a powerful comment.

Mr Farage continued to warn that more people would stop paying the licence fee in future if the BBC does not attempt to regain trust, adding:

If the BBC doesn’t now get a grip, get somebody in from the outside, somebody who has got a history and a culture of changing organisations, of turning them around, then I think what you would see within the next couple of years are many, many millions just refusing, just not wanting to have the license fee.

The Liberal Democrats have called on Sir Keir Starmer, Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage to support the BBC from criticism by US President Donald Trump.

In his letter to Labour, Conservative and Reform leaders, Sir Ed said:

It should be extremely concerning to us all to see the President of the United States pressuring the BBC over its leadership and attacking its journalists as ‘corrupt’, and his Press Secretary telling everyone to ‘watch GB News’.

Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith has said he believes the Government ‘leant’ on Tim Davie to resign to avoid upsetting Donald Trump.

Appearing on Talk, Mr Duncan Smith said he believed the resignations of Mr Davie as well as Deborah Turness were ‘necessary’.

Any one of the scandals that has rocked the BBC in the past five years could have been enough to force director-general Tim Davie to resign.

The admission that his top newsreader was a paedophile. His repeated failure to rein in the political grandstanding of its best-known sports commentator. Vile sexual behaviour by leading presenters.

Even the discovery that Diana, Princess of Wales, had been duped 30 years ago into giving an interview with a BBC reporter armed with forged financial documents.

But until the 58-year-old former Pepsi executive fell on his sword last night, it seemed nothing that happened on his watch as head of the British Broadcasting Corporation could shame him into quitting his £540,000-a-year post – earning him the nickname ‘Teflon Tim’.

Read the full column here:

Before his resignation last night, the now former director-general Tim Davie found himself embroiled in series of scandals at the corporation.

Here’s a look back at how he was grilled in Parliament earlier this year after Bob Vylan’s performance at Glastonbury was shown on the BBC and the airing of a Gaza documentary which was later removed from the iPlayer streaming service

The BBC faces a fresh crisis as more than 200 Jewish staff accused the corporation’s Board of ‘ignoring’ their pleas for an investigation into alleged anti-Semitism at the broadcaster.

More than 200 Jewish staff, contractors, suppliers and contributors wrote to BBC chairman Samir Shah in July 2024 asking for an urgent formal investigation by the BBC Board into ‘systemic problems of anti-Semitism and bias at the BBC, alongside senior management’s demonstrable failure to properly address the issue’.

Attached to the letter was a report titled ‘Being Jewish and working at the BBC’ which included testimony from staff who argued the corporation was no longer ‘a safe space to be Jewish’.

The same staff members wrote again to the BBC Board on Friday, accusing it of ignoring their pleas and offering ‘words not action’ after a gap of more than a year.

Good Morning Britain presenters Susanna Reid and Richard Madeley had a bitter on-air spat about BBC director general Tim Davie after he was forced to resign.

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

The chief 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.

And former employee Ms Reid, who was a star of BBC Breakfast before she made the shock switch to ITV in 2014 to launch Good Morning Britain (GMB), rushed to Mr Davie’s defence during Monday’s edition of her breakfast show.

The US President described Tim 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.

He also shared a Daily Mail column from Boris Johnson, where the former Prime Minister vowed to withhold his licence fee unless Mr Davie broke his silence on the incident or resigned.

Read President Trump’s Truth Social post below:

BBC News’ outgoing boss Deborah Turness today hit back at Donald Trump after he accused the broadcaster of being ‘corrupt’.

Ms Turness, who quit yesterday over the editing of one of the President’s speeches by Panorama, turned up for work this morning and told reporters outside Broadcasting House in London that the corporation is not ‘institutionally biased’.

Mr Trump last night condemned the BBC as ‘corrupt’ as he tore into Mr Davie after he resigned in disgrace over a doctored video.

When asked about President Trump’s comments an emotional Ms Turness said: ‘Of course our journalists aren’t corrupt. Our journalists are hardworking people who strive for impartiality and I will stand by their journalism’.

Explaining why she had quit she went on: ‘I would like to say it has been the privilege of my career to serve as the CEO of BBC News and to work with our brilliant team of journalists.

‘I stepped down over the weekend because the buck stops with me. But I’d like to make one thing very clear, BBC News is not institutionally biased. That’s why it’s the world’s most trusted news provider’.

BBC staff attempted to ‘block’ an interview with JK Rowling from taking place due to her views on women’s rights, a former senior editor at the broadcaster has revealed.

A Newsnight producer ‘with strong views on trans issues’ labelled the Harry Potter author ‘very problematic’ during an editorial meeting, according to ex-diplomatic editor Mark Urban.

The respected journalist also claimed that BBC executives adopt a position of ‘defensiveness’ when the broadcaster is criticised and have a ‘tendency to ignore complaints in the hope they’ll go away’.

The revelations from Mr Urban – who worked at the BBC for 35 years – are the latest to emerge in a bias scandal that is engulfing the broadcaster.

Mr Urban wrote on his Substack page that at the BBC, like with other media organisations, ‘generational change brought a younger, more dirigiste kind of progressivism onto the team’.

Labour’s former deputy leader Tom Watson has called on Sir Robbie Gibb to resign from the BBC board in the wake of Tim Davie and Deborah Turness leaving the broadcaster.

Mr Watson tweeted: ‘Whatever the rights and wrongs of today’s resignations, one thing is clear: Sir Robbie Gibb should never have been on the BBC Board. His old job as Director of Communications at Number 10 should have ruled him out, just as it would Alastair Campbell. He should resign too.’

It comes as a former controller of BBC Radio 4 called on board members to receive scrutiny in Parliament before being appointed.

Mark Damazer told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, ‘we know too little’ about non-executive directors at the corporation.

I think that those members of the board who want to be on the board, as it were, non-executive directors, ought each and every one of them come up for parliamentary scrutiny and be made to sing for their supper before they’re appointed, because we know too little about them.

Sir Robbie joined the BBC board as a non-executive director in 2021.

We’re seeing some Labour MPs coming out in support of the BBC this morning.

Emily Thornberry described the national broadcaster as a ‘beacon of truth’, adding Britain ‘should be proud of it’.

While Harriet Harman said it was ‘time to recognise and celebrate’ the BBC instead of ‘pulling it down’.

Nearly a week has passed since we learned about a leaked report showing how BBC’s Panorama had doctored a speech by Donald Trump to make him say something awful that he hadn’t actually said.

For days the BBC didn’t respond to the shocking evidence contained in a dossier written by Michael Prescott, a former adviser to the broadcaster on editorial issues.

The Corporation’s bosses went to ground. Director-general Tim Davie might just as well have not existed.

Then, last night, he dramatically fell on his sword. So also did Deborah Turness, head of News and Current Affairs. Their resignations are amply justified. Whether they will cure the BBC of its very deep-seated malaise is another matter.

Read the full column by Stephen Glover here:

Deborah Turness has been stopped by journalists outside the BBC’s London headquarters where she was said to be looking emotional this morning.

The former BBC News CEO said:

I would like to say it has been the privilege of my career to serve as the CEO of BBC News and to work with our brilliant team of journalists. I stepped down over the weekend because the buck stops with me. But I’d like to make one thing very clear, BBC News is not institutionally biased. That’s why it’s the world’s most trusted news provider.

When asked on why the BBC failed to deal with mistakes on Trump, antisemitism, and women’s rights she says, ‘I’m sure that story will emerge’.

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.