Reform UK pulls out of BBC film amid Trump speech edit row

Reform UK has pulled out of a BBC documentary about the party amid a row over the broadcaster’s editing of a Donald Trump speech. The film, which was due to be called the Rise of Reform and would have been presented by Laura Kuenssberg, was being made by an independent production company, October Films. The company was involved in a Panorama documentary that led to the resignation of two of the most senior executives at the BBC, the director general, Tim Davie, and Deborah Turness, the chief executive of news. The US president has since said the BBC “defrauded the public” and that he had an “obligation” to take legal action over the misleading editing of the speech, which appeared to show Trump inciting violence before the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. October Films was not responsible for this edit, which was done by BBC staff. In an internal email, Reform party members were urged to “politely decline to participate” in the film about the party, which was due to air in January, citing “disinformation” in the Trump film. The memo said: “We want to be clear that October Films have always conducted themselves professionally, and there is no suggestion from our side that they would maliciously misrepresent Reform UK. “However, following the Panorama documentary the trust has been lost, and both BBC and the production company will have to do a lot of hard work to regain that trust.” Trump reiterated his threat of launching a billion-dollar legal action during an interview on Fox News. He said: “I think I have an obligation to do it, you can’t allow people to do that. I guess I have to. They defrauded the public and they’ve admitted it. This is within one of our great allies, supposedly our great ally. “That’s a pretty sad event. They actually changed my January 6 speech, which was a beautiful speech, which was a very calming speech, and they made it sound radical. “They showed me the results of how they butchered it up. It was very dishonest and the head man quit and a lot of the other people quit.” A legal letter sent on behalf of the US president has demanded that “false, defamatory, disparaging, and inflammatory statements” made about him be retracted immediately. The letter says if the BBC “does not comply”, Trump will be “left with no alternative but to enforce his legal and equitable rights, all of which are expressly reserved and are not waived, including by filing legal action for no less than 1,000,000,000 dollars in damages”. Keir Starmer has not spoken to Trump about his threatened legal action, Downing Street indicated. Trump’s comments come ahead of a process to review the BBC’s charter. The culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, said the BBC must “renew its mission for the modern age” and warned MPs criticising the broadcaster to “consider just what is at stake”. She said the review would ensure a BBC that is “fiercely independent” and “genuinely accountable” to the public it served.