Ed Davey urges PM Starmer to sack BBC board member Robbie Gibb

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has urged Prime Minister Keir Starmer to sack BBC board member Robbie Gibb, as the public broadcaster's crisis continues to escalate.

Gibb, who was former Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May's director of communications, was appointed to the board by Boris Johnson when he was Tory prime minister.

US President Donald Trump has threatened a $1bn lawsuit against the BBC over the editing of a speech by the Republican leader on 6 January 2021 for the BBC's Panorama show.

Davey said in parliament on Wednesday that the "BBC's independence and impartiality are absolutely crucial.

"That's why he [Prime Minister Keir Starmer] must stop President Trump from undermining them."

"But President Trump's not the only one, Mr Speaker," Davey continued.

"The last government spent years undermining the BBC's independence and impartiality.

"They appointed two Conservative cronies on the BBC's board. One has had to resign, the other's still there. He's been repeatedly accused of interfering in editorial decisions and staff appointments.

"Robbie Gibb should have no role in appointing the next director general and given the royal charter, which gives the government the power to remove him, will the prime minister sack him now?"

Starmer replied that he agreed the previous Tory government undermined the BBC, but did not answer Davey's question.

Claims surrounding Gibb's involvement

The comments follow claims that Gibb has "led the charge" in accusations that the BBC is systemically biased.

He is reportedly a friend of Michael Prescott, a former external adviser to the BBC who wrote the crucial report criticising the broadcaster which led to its director general, Tim Davie, and the head of BBC news resigning over the weekend.

The editing of Trump's 6 January 2021 speech suggested Trump had said: "We’re going to walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you, and we fight. We fight like hell." In fact, those words were taken from different sections of Trump's speech. 

Gibb was part of a consortium that bought out the Jewish Chronicle outlet in 2020 and still declares on the BBC website that he has a 100 percent holding of the outlet. 

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The Jewish Chronicle last year published stories about Israel and its war on Gaza that were allegedly "wild fabrications".

In July, more than 400 cultural figures signed a letter calling on Gibb to resign from the board over fears he is harming the broadcaster's credibility.

Alan Rusbridger, the former Guardian editor who is currently editor of Prospect Magazine, has previously called into question Gibb's position on the BBC's editorial standards committee.

The BBC has been widely accused of both pro-Israel and anti-Israel bias.

A report released by the Centre For Media Monitoring earlier this year said that the BBC gave Israeli deaths 33 times more coverage per fatality and ran almost equal numbers of humanising victim profiles, despite 34 times more Palestinian deaths.

Middle East Eye reported earlier this week that the BBC's online Middle East editor Raffi Berg said in 2020 that it was "wonderful" to be in a "circle of trust" with current and former Mossad agents while writing a book, and that the agency's "fantastic operations" make him "tremendously proud".

Berg is suing journalist Owen Jones over an article published by Drop Site last December headlined "The BBC's Civil War Over Gaza".

In the story, Jones said he spoke to 12 BBC staffers who said Berg "plays a key role in a wider BBC culture of 'systematic Israeli propaganda'".

Berg has denied the claims.