The BBC controversies faced by Tim Davie during his time in charge

Published

5 days ago

November 10, 2025

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Tim Davie stepping down as director-general of the BBC comes after several controversies faced by the broadcaster in recent years.

His resignation came at the same time as that of BBC News chief executive Deborah Turness, at the end of a week in which concerns about impartiality were raised over how a speech by US President Donald Trump was edited in an episode of Panorama.

“While not being the only reason, the current debate around BBC News has understandably contributed to my decision,” Mr Davie wrote in a note sent to staff.

“Overall, the BBC is delivering well, but there have been some mistakes made and as director-general I have to take ultimate responsibility.”

Mr Davie has been in the role for five years and at the BBC for 20 in total, having previously worked as director of marketing, director of audio and music, and chief executive of BBC Studios.

Here are the controversies the broadcaster has faced in recent years.

The Trump documentary edit

A memo sent in the summer by a former external adviser to the BBC’s editorial standards committee, highlighting the edit of a Donald Trump speech as well as other concerns about impartiality, was first reported by The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday.

The concerns regard clips spliced together from sections of a speech made by the US president on 6 January 2021, featured in the Panorama programme Trump: A Second Chance?

It made it appear that Mr Trump told supporters he was going to walk to the US Capitol with them to “fight like hell”, although the quotes were made during separate parts of the speech. The episode was broadcast by the BBC the week before last year’s US election.

Bob Vylan at Glastonbury

In July, punk-rap duo Bob Vylan led chants of “death to the IDF” while on stage at Glastonbury, a performance which was live-streamed as part of the BBC’s coverage of the festival.

Afterwards, the broadcaster said it would no longer live broadcast “high risk” performances, and suggested disciplinary action could be taken against staff who failed to halt the stream.

The BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit received four complaints about the performance relating to incitement to violence, terrorism or ethnic cleansing, hate speech and expressions of antisemitism.

In a ruling given in September, it found the stream of the performance had breached its editorial standards.

Following the backlash over the Glastonbury gig, Bob Vylan said in a post on Instagram that “we are not for the death of Jews, Arabs or any other race or group of people”.

MasterChef

In the same month, presenter Gregg Wallace was sacked from cooking show MasterChef after an investigation into historical allegations of misconduct upheld multiple accusations against him. These first emerged towards the end of 2024.

Wallace, who co-presented the show for almost 20 years, said he was “deeply sorry for any distress caused” and that he “never set out to harm or humiliate”, but also said in a statement released ahead of the publication of a summary of the report that he had been “cleared of the most serious and sensational accusations” made against him.

His co-presenter John Torode left the show the following week after an allegation he used an “extremely offensive racist term” was upheld, the BBC said.

In October, Wallace announced he was suing the broadcaster for “distress and harassment”.

Gary Lineker

No stranger to controversy during his last few years at the BBC, Gary Lineker stepped down from hosting Match Of The Day and World Cup coverage in May.

It came after he apologised unreservedly for sharing a social media post from the Palestine Lobby group that had been illustrated with a rat – which has been used to represent Jewish people in antisemitic propaganda, including Nazi Germany.

He said he had not known about the rat’s symbolism.

“I would never consciously repost anything antisemitic – it goes against everything I stand for,” Lineker said in a statement as he confirmed his resignation. “However, I recognise the error and upset that I caused, and reiterate how sorry I am. Stepping back now feels like the responsible course of action.”

The former England star had previously been temporarily suspended from the BBC in March 2023, after an impartiality row over comments he made criticising the then Conservative government’s asylum policy.

His temporary suspension led pundits Ian Wright and Alan Shearer to both announce they would not appear on Match of the Day, and a shortened show went ahead without commentary, pundit analysis, or post-match interviews.

The incident sparked a report, which decided that high-profile BBC presenters outside of its news coverage should be able to express their views on political issues as long as they stop short of campaigning.

Gaza documentary

Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone was pulled from BBC iPlayer in February after it emerged that the 13-year-old boy narrating the programme was the son of a deputy minister in the Hamas-run government.

The documentary was made by independent production company Hoyo Films.

A BBC review into the controversial programme said three members of the independent production company knew about the role of the boy’s father – but no one within the corporation was aware.

In July, the BBC said it had breached its own editorial guidelines by failing to disclose the full identity of the child narrator’s father – Ayman Alyazouri, who has worked as Hamas’s deputy minister of agriculture.

In October, an Ofcom investigation found the documentary had breached the broadcasting code.

Huw Edwards

In April 2024, veteran news presenter Huw Edwards resigned from the BBC, nine months after coming off air following accusations of paying a teenager thousands of pounds for sexually explicit pictures.

Just a few months later, it emerged he had remained one of the broadcaster’s highest-paid stars of the year, despite his suspension.

Days later, new allegations emerged – and he was charged and pleaded guilty in court to three counts of “making” indecent images of children, after receiving the illegal images as part of a WhatsApp conversation.

The court heard how he paid up to £1,500 to a paedophile who sent him 41 illegal images between December 2020 and August 2021, seven of which were of the most serious type.

The disgraced broadcaster avoided jail, but was given a six-month suspended sentence.

Strictly Come Dancing

Ahead of the 2024 series of BBC favourite Strictly Come Dancing, producers said they would introduce staff chaperones into all future rehearsals.

It followed the departure of two professional dancers following complaints about their behaviour.

Following an investigation, the BBC upheld “some, but not all” of the allegations made against Giovanni Pernice by his 2023 dance partner Amanda Abbington.

Abbington described an apology from the corporation as vindication, while Pernice denied displaying “abusive or threatening behaviour” and said the majority of the complaints had not been upheld.

Another professional dancer, Graziano Di Prima, also left the show amid reports of alleged misconduct.

Apology over Diana interview

In 2021, a report into Martin Bashir‘s bombshell 1995 programme with Princess Diana found the journalist had “deceived and induced” her brother to secure the interview.

By using fake bank statements, Mr Bashir made a “serious breach” of BBC guidelines on straight-dealing, the Lord Dyson report concluded.

Mr Davie, who was not at the BBC at the time the programme was made, issued a “full and unconditional” apology after the findings were released, and the corporation sent written apologies to Prince William and Prince Harry, as well as to Prince Charles and Earl Spencer.

Mr Bashir also apologised and said the faking of bank statements was a “stupid thing to do” and “an action I deeply regret”, but added he felt it had “no bearing whatsoever on the personal choice by Princess Diana to take part in the interview”.

Former director-general Lord Hall, who was the BBC’s director of news and current affairs when the Diana interview was screened, said he accepted the corporation’s 1996 inquiry into how the sit-down was secured “fell well short of what was required”.

UK

Donald Trump confirms he will sue the BBC over Panorama edit – despite broadcaster’s apology

Published

15 hours ago

November 15, 2025

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Donald Trump confirms he will sue the BBC over Panorama edit - despite broadcaster's apology

Donald Trump has said he will sue the BBC for between $1bn and $5bn over the editing of his speech on Panorama.

The US president confirmed he would be taking legal action against the broadcaster while on Air Force One overnight on Saturday.

“We’ll sue them. We’ll sue them for anywhere between a billion (£792m) and five billion dollars (£3.79bn), probably sometime next week,” he told reporters.

“We have to do it, they’ve even admitted that they cheated. Not that they couldn’t have not done that. They cheated. They changed the words coming out of my mouth.”

Mr Trump then told reporters he would discuss the matter with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer over the weekend, and claimed “the people of the UK are very angry about what happened… because it shows the BBC is fake news”.

The Daily Telegraph reported earlier this month that an internal memo raised concerns about the BBC’s editing of a speech made by Mr Trump on 6 January 2021, just before a mob rioted at the US Capitol building, on its flagship late-night news programme.

The concerns regard clips spliced together from sections of the president’s speech to make it appear he told supporters he was going to walk to the US Capitol with them to “fight like hell” in the documentary Trump: A Second Chance?, which was broadcast by the BBC the week before last year’s US election.

Following a backlash, both BBC director-general Tim Davie and BBC News chief executive Deborah Turness resigned from their roles.

‘No basis for defamation claim’

On Thursday, the broadcaster officially apologised to the president and added that it was an “error of judgement” and the programme will “not be broadcast again in this form on any BBC platforms”.

A spokesperson said that “the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited,” but they also added that “we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim”.

Earlier this week, Mr Trump’s lawyers threatened to sue the BBC for $1bn unless it apologised, retracted the clip, and compensated him.

Legal challenges

But legal experts have said that Mr Trump would face challenges taking the case to court in the UK or the US.

The deadline to bring the case to UK courts, where defamation damages rarely exceed £100,000 ($132,000), has already expired because the documentary aired in October 2024, which is more than one year.

Also because the documentary was not shown in the US, it would be hard to show that Americans thought less of the president because of a programme they could not watch.

Newsnight allegations

The BBC has said it was looking into fresh allegations, published in The Telegraph, that its Newsnight show also selectively edited footage of the same speech in a report broadcast in June 2022.

A BBC spokesperson said: “The BBC holds itself to the highest editorial standards. This matter has been brought to our attention and we are now looking into it.”

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UK

Banksy art theft lands burglar with 13-month prison sentence

Published

18 hours ago

November 14, 2025

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Banksy art theft lands burglar with 13-month prison sentence

A man has been given a 13-month prison sentence for stealing Banksy’s famous Girl With Balloon print from a London gallery.

Larry Fraser, 49, of Beckton, east London, was sentenced on Friday after pleading guilty to one count of non-residential burglary at Kingston Crown Court on 9 October.

The print, one of the street artist‘s most famous, was stolen from a gallery in New Cavendish Street in London at around 11pm on 8 September last year.

Fraser used a hammer to smash his way through a glass entrance door at the Grove Gallery before stealing the artwork, which was valued at £270,000.

He concealed his identity with a mask, hooded jacket and gloves, but the Metropolitan Police’s Flying Squad was able to identify him and track him to a location streets away.

He was also caught on CCTV loading the artwork into a van before fleeing the scene.

A second man, 54-year-old James Love, was accused of being the getaway driver in the burglary, but cleared of stealing the print.

Fraser was arrested at his home address on 10 September, within 48 hours of the burglary, and charged the next day.

Officers were able to recover the artwork after executing a warrant on the Isle of Dogs. It has now been returned to the gallery.

Fraser pleaded to the court that he was struggling with a historic drug debt and agreed to steal the work “under a degree of pressure and fear”.

He said he did not know what he would be stealing, nor its value, until the day of the offence.

Jeffrey Israel, defending, said Fraser lived with his mother as her principal carer, and had only managed to “break his cycle of drug addiction” after his last prison sentence.

He added that it “would take a bold advocate” to suggest that the value of the print had increased by the burglary, but insisted “that is probably the reality”.

Judge Anne Brown was unmoved, however, and said the offence was “simply too serious” for a suspended sentence.

“This is a brazen and serious non-domestic burglary,” she said.

“Whilst you did not know the precise value of the print, you obviously understood it to be very valuable.”

She added: “Whilst I am sure there was a high degree of planning, this was not your plan.”

However, Fraser may be eligible for immediate release due to time spent on electronic curfew.

Detective Chief Inspector Scott Mather, who led the Met’s investigation, said: “Banksy’s Girl With Balloon is known across the world – and we reacted immediately to not just bring Fraser to justice but also reunite the artwork with the gallery.

“The speed at which this took place is a testament to the tireless work of the flying squad officers – in total it took just four days for normality to be restored.”

The 2004 artwork was part of a £1.5m collection of 13 Banksy pieces at the gallery.

Gallery manager, Lindor Mehmetaj, said it was “remarkable” for the piece to have been recovered after the theft.

The 29-year-old said: “I was completely, completely shocked, but in a very, very positive way when the Flying Squad showed me the actual artwork.

“It’s very hard to put into words, the weight that comes off your shoulders.”

UK

‘Incredibly dangerous’ sex offender Chao Xu jailed – as police say there could be hundreds more victims

Published

18 hours ago

November 14, 2025

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'Incredibly dangerous' sex offender Chao Xu jailed - as police say there could be hundreds more victims

An “incredibly dangerous” sex offender who drugged his victims and installed spy cameras around his home has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 14 years – as police appeal for hundreds more potential victims to come forward.

Warning: This article contains details of sexual offences

Chinese national Chao Xu, 33, has been described by police as “one of the most prolific offenders ever uncovered” by the Metropolitan Police.

Xu, who was a law postgraduate student at the University of Greenwich in London between 2015 and 2016, ran his own recruitment business and targeted victims at networking events at his home.

He invented his “Spring of Life” cocktail, a mix of alcohols and Chinese herbal medicines, to sedate guests, and planted spy cameras in items including air fresheners, sanitary packaging and speakers.

Police found thousands of pictures and videos, with some showing unconscious or incapacitated victims in his flat in Greenwich, south-east London.

Xu, who is from China but is believed to have been living in the UK since 2013, also covertly filmed women on their daily commutes at stations such as London Bridge in so-called upskirting incidents.

He pleaded guilty to 24 sex offences between 2021 and 2025 at Woolwich Crown Court in August relating to six victims, with two charges relating to a seventh woman left to lie on file.

Xu admitted four counts of rape, eight counts of assault by penetration, four counts of sexual assault, four counts of voyeurism, two counts of administering a substance with intent and two counts of operating equipment beneath the clothing of another without consent (commonly known as upskirting).

‘Incredibly dangerous man’

His Honour Judge Christopher Grout described Xu as an “incredibly dangerous man” who “took great enjoyment” from his offending.

“Your behaviour was calculated and planned, evidenced by the covert recording systems you had set up in your flats and the fact you had incapacitated a number of your victims by drugging them.

“You betrayed the trust of a number of women who you befriended in the most appalling ways imaginable,” he added.

Could be hundreds of victims

Another 11 alleged victims have since come forward but the Metropolitan Police believe there are hundreds more in the UK and China, with offences committed in workplaces, public spaces and overseas.

Acting Detective Superintendent Lewis Sanderson described Xu as one of the “most prolific” offenders the force has ever investigated, adding that his “crimes were calculated, sustained, and devastating”.

Speaking outside the court on Friday, he said: “Chao Xu was a prolific and predatory sexual offender who committed some of the most cowardly and abhorrent crimes imaginable. His actions caused deep and lasting harm.”

“The number of victims of sexual assault, voyeurism and upskirting is believed to be in the hundreds. This includes individuals filmed without consent in Xu’s flat at his workplace and in public spaces.

“That is why today I’m making a direct appeal. If you believe you may have been a victim of Chao Xu, or if you have any information that could assist our investigation, please come forward. You will be listened to. You will be believed and you will be supported.”

He said all of the sexual assault victims were Chinese women, aged between 18 and 30, while the voyeurism victims are also young females but of different ethnicities.

He added that there will be women who may not know they are victims of his crimes, as they may have been drugged by Xu.

Detectives were alerted to Xu’s crimes after he held a networking event in Greenwich in June.

When one of the women who attended became unwell, Xu offered to let her stay, before raping her several times, the Metropolitan Police said.

They later found he had drugged her with substances known to cause drowsiness and incapacitation.

The case included six million messages on WeChat, the popular Chinese messaging app, most of them in Mandarin, which all had to be checked with the help of a translator.