Sir Keir Starmer is being urged to step in and remove Sir Robbie Gibb from his role as a BBC board member.
During a debate in Parliament yesterday [Tuesday 11 November], Labour, SNP, Green and Liberal Democrat MPs demanded Gibb be removed from his role and, during Prime Minister’s Questions earlier today [Wednesday], Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey called for Starmer to take direct action.
Gibb, he said, has been “repeatedly accused of interfering in editorial decisions and staff appointments” at the corporation. He “should have no role in appointing the next director general”, added Davey, asking: “Will the Prime Minister sack him now?” Starmer responded: “I’m not going to go into the individual runnings of the BBC.”
In recent days Gibb’s position at the BBC has come under increasing scrutiny. The former BBC journalist, who has worked in comms for almost a decade, has been accused of leading a ‘coup’ against the BBC hierarchy, according to media reports in the wake of the shock resignations of the BBC’s director general, Tim Davie, and head of news, Deborah Turness, on Sunday.
The dramatic departures came after damaging revelations over a Panorama documentary about Donald Trump. The programme included two separate clips of Trump that had been edited together and appeared to show him encouraging the Capitol Hill riots of 6 January 2021.
The scandal erupted after a memo by Michael Prescott, managing director of corporate and political strategy at Hanover Communications, in his former capacity as an adviser to the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines and Standards Board, was leaked to the media last week. The memo outlined concerns over the BBC’s impartiality and cited the Panorama documentary amid other examples.
Trump has since threatened the BBC with a $1bn lawsuit, despite the BBC’s chair, Samir Shah, apologising earlier this week for an “error of judgement” in airing the Panorama documentary.
An ex-BBC journalist who served as director of communications for prime minister Theresa May between 2017 and 2019, Gibb has described himself as a “proper Thatcherite Conservative”. He went on to join global strategic communications firm Kekst CNC as a senior adviser, and was appointed to the BBC's board in 2021.
According to a report in The Guardian on Monday, he “led the charge” in putting pressure on the BBC’s leadership over claims of systemic bias in its coverage of Donald Trump, and issues such as Gaza and transgender rights.
Gibb “amplified the criticisms in key board meetings” that took place before the resignations of Davie and Turness, it claimed.
Writing in The Guardian earlier this week, Davey laid out his concerns. He said Gibb had “repeatedly been accused of interfering with editorial decisions in a way that is totally unacceptable for a member of the board – especially such a party political appointment”.
Davey added: “To ensure the BBC’s independence, impartiality and trust, Gibb should have no role in appointing the new director general. The government should remove him from the board immediately – and end the practice of political appointments, which so badly undermines the BBC, altogether.”
His concerns were echoed by John Swinney, Scotland’s First Minister, in an interview with LBC earlier this week. “Robbie Gibb is a very clearly affiliated party-political figure on the board of the BBC,” he said. “If the BBC wants to be viewed as an impartial organisation that's authoritative, that reflects the independence of commentary, then I think Robbie Gibb's position is untenable."
During yesterday’s debate in Parliament several MPs called for Gibb to be removed from the BBC board. However, culture secretary Lisa Nandy said she was “unable to pursue the course of action” because the BBC’s charter “sets a strict legal threshold that must be met before dismissal of a board member”.
Dame Caroline Dinenage, chair of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, revealed that Gibb has been asked to appear before the committee. It has invited “the non-executive members of the BBC editorial guidance and standards committee Dr Samir Shah, Caroline Thomson and Robbie Gibb, and the former external independent advisers Michael Prescott and Caroline Daniel to appear before us in the weeks ahead."
The BBC and Gibb had not responded to requests for comment at the time of writing, while Prescott declined to comment.
Pic credit: Leon Neal via Getty Images