BBC chair expected to apologise amid accusations of bias as Trump welcomes resignations – latest updates

8.45am GMT We mentioned in an earlier post that the Conservative party leader, Kemi Badenoch, said it was right that the BBC director general Tim Davie and CEO of News Deborah Turness had resigned as she accused the cooperation of being “full of bias”. Here is her statement, posted on social media, in full: It’s right that Tim Davie and Deborah Turness have finally taken responsibility and resigned from the BBC. But let’s be honest, this has been a catalogue of serious failures that runs far deeper. The Prescott report exposed institutional bias that cannot be swept away with two resignations – strong action must be taken on all the issues it raised. The culture at the BBC has not yet changed. BBC Arabic must be brought under urgent control. The BBC’s US and Middle East coverage needs a full overhaul. And on basic matters of biology, the corporation can no longer allow its output to be shaped by a cabal of ideological activists. The new leadership must now deliver genuine reform of the culture of the BBC, top to bottom – because it should not expect the public to keep funding it through a compulsory licence fee unless it can finally demonstrate true impartiality. 8.17am GMT Davie's resignation 'a failure of governance' The resignations of Tim Davie and Deborah Turness was “a coup”, a former newspaper editor has said. David Yelland, who edited The Sun from 1998 to 2003, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that their departure “was a coup, and worse than that, it was an inside job”. He said: There were people inside the BBC, very close to the board … who have systematically undermined Tim Davie and his senior team over a period and this has been going on for a long time. What happened yesterday didn’t just happen in isolation. “What has happened here is there was a failure of governance,” he said. “I don’t blame the chairman [Samir Shah] as an individual, but the job of the chair of any organisation, a company – including the BBC – is to keep their CEO, their top man or woman, in post or fire them. “And that has not happened, because Tim Davie was not fired. He walked and so there was, that is the definition of a failure of governance.” Updated at 8.27am GMT 8.06am GMT Government minister Louise Sandher-Jones has rejected suggestions the BBC was institutionally biased. The veterans minister told Sky News: 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. 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. Asked about Donald Trump’s comments on the BBC, she said: President Trump will obviously speak for himself. Tim Davie and Deborah Turness have been quite clear that it’s their decision that they’ve stepped down and I note that the board has thanked them for their service and had said that it had supported them. But they’ve, as they’ve said, taken accountability for what the BBC has put out. I think it is very important that public figures have accountability. Updated at 8.46am GMT 7.56am GMT Trump welcomes Davie's resignation Donald Trump welcomed the resignations of Tim Davie and Deborah Turness. He wrote on his Truth Social platform last night that the way his speech had been edited by Panorama was an attempt to “step on the scales of a presidential election”, adding: “What a terrible thing for Democracy!” The edit suggested Trump told the crowd: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you, and we fight. We fight like hell.” The words were taken from sections of his speech almost an hour apart. The programme was aired last year, a week before the US election. 7.48am GMT Who is Tim Davie? The media boss has steered the corporation through years of crisis and controversy. Read our profile here: Related: Tim Davie: the marketing man who became the BBC’s director general Updated at 8.08am GMT 7.46am GMT Reaction to the resignation of Tim Davie Lisa Nandy, culture secretary, thanked Davie for his work and said the government would help the BBC secure “its role at the heart of national life for decades to come”. She said: “Now more than ever, the need for trusted news and high quality programming is essential to our democratic and cultural life, and our place in the world.” Kemi Badenoch, Tory leader, claimed the BBC was full of “institutional bias,” and “the new leadership must now deliver genuine reform of the culture of the BBC, top to bottom.” Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said the corporation needs “to turn a new leaf”. 7.41am GMT BBC chair expected to apologise for Panorama's Trump edit Hello and welcome to our coverage of developments at the BBC, where the director general, Tim Davie, and its CEO of news, Deborah Turness, have resigned after accusations of bias and misleading the public in its coverage of issues including Donald Trump, Gaza and trans rights. In an announcement that caused shock within the corporation, Davie said his departure was “entirely my decision”. The BBC chair, Samir Shah, is expected to apologise on Monday for the way a speech by Donald Trump to crowds at the Capitol on January 6 2021 was edited for current affairs programme Panorama after several days of pressure on the broadcaster prompted the resignation of Davie and Turness. Stay with us for the latest developments throughout the day. Related: Tim Davie resigns as BBC director general after accusations of ‘serious and systemic’ bias in coverage Updated at 8.51am GMT