The BBC - 103 years old - has long been seen by many as a trusted and impartial source of ‘information, education and entertainment’, as its first director general John Reith put it. However, others see it as a biased and unduly influential peddler of untruths - although they disagree amongst themselves about the direction of the bias. In November 2025, it was plunged into a crisis about its integrity and impartiality.

How it started

An internal letter to the BBC board was leaked to the Daily Telegraph - written by adviser Michael Prescott and critical of what he saw as the BBC’s unduly liberal views on topics like US President Trump, the war in Gaza and transgender rights. A central issue was a 2024 Panorama programme which edited Trump’s famous January 6 2021 speech on the day of the Capitol riots, splicing together two separate parts to imply that he called for violence. (To paraphrase comedian Eric Morecambe: the edit used all the right words, but not necessarily in the right order.) Although the rest of the Panorama programme was balanced, Trump threatened to sue the BBC for US$1bn (£760m) for reputational damage. BBC chair Samir Shah apologised to Trump for the ‘error of judgement’, agreeing that the edit ‘gave the impression of a direct call for violent action’ and promising not to broadcast the programme again. However, he rejected Trump’s demand for compensation and denied any institutional bias at the BBC. Trump’s claim of ‘reputational damage’ has been widely disputed, given that the 2024 Panorama programme was never aired in the US at all, predated Trump’s presidential win and did not receive a single complaint at the time. Trump, however, refused to accept the BBC’s apology and upped the ante on his threat of legal action to US$5bn. He told GB News, ‘I made a beautiful statement, and they made it into a not beautiful statement’.

Prescott’s memo also set out what he saw as further evidence of ‘systemic bias’ at the BBC. He said that it was effectively ‘censored’ by LGBT specialist reporters who promoted a pro-trans agenda; and that it was biased against Israel, especially on BBC Arabic. BBC director general Tim Davie - a former Conservative Party candidate and deputy chair of the Hammersmith and Fulham Conservative Association - and BBC’s head of news Deborah Turness, resigned over the furore. Another board member subsequently resigned over ‘governance issues’, saying he was ‘not consulted’ about the recent issues and resignations.

How it’s going

According to The Guardian (11.11.25), there followed ‘weeks of concerted attacks on the organisation, orchestrated by the right-wing press - including the Telegraph - to which the BBC presents a commercial threat’. Others on the right also got involved: Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said that the Panorama footage amounted to electoral interference, that the BBC has been ‘institutionally biased for decades’ and was ‘rotten to the core’. He has been saying since 2019 that he would get rid of the BBC licence fee and replace it with a subscription model. According to a recent YouGov poll (10.11.25) many people broadly agree with this perspective: 31% believe the BBC is biased in favour of left-wing views, whereas only 19% think it is biased in favour of right-wing views; 19% say it is not biased at all and 31% don’t know.

Defenders of the BBC point out, however, that PM Boris Johnson appointed key figure Robbie Gibb to the BBC board as a director in 2021. Gibb helped to launch the hardline right-wing GB News channel and was previously head of communications at Downing street for Conservative PM Theresa May. Gibb then appointed Prescott - former political editor of Rupert Murdoch’s Sunday Times - as a BBC adviser on standards. The Observer (12.11.25)has said that Prescott’s letter itself is ‘unfairly selective’ and ‘flunks the impartiality test’. Left-leaning commentators suggest that the leak of his letter was a coordinated and politically motivated attempt to undermine public confidence in the BBC. Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has called for the removal of Robbie Gibb from the BBC board and for an end to political appointments.

Conclusion

The source of the leak of Prescott’s letter has not been found - or, at least, has not been publicly identified. The editing of Trump’s speech by Panorama has been widely agreed to be foolish, and this latest crisis is at least partly of the BBC’s own making. Meanwhile, the BBC is looking for a new director general. Former Conservative chancellor George Osborne is one of many who is not discouraging rumours that he wants the job. ‘He thinks he can offer badly needed independence as he’s obviously not a Labour stooge.’ (The Times, 15.11.25.)

The next BBC charter begins in January 2028, which could be a good time to change the system and introduce what the British Broadcasting Challenge - a group of academics and media professionals - has called a ‘genuinely independent public appointments process for the chair and trustees, insulated from covert and overt government influence’.

Bias, of course, is in the eye of the beholder - and the BBC likes to point out that it is regularly criticised from all sides, suggesting that it might be getting the balance roughly right. However, it will henceforth have a job on its hands to regain public trust and preserve its role as the country’s original and still foremost public service broadcaster.