BBC veteran Simpson goes to war on gender neutral loos

AS BBC’s grandly titled World Affairs Editor, John Simpson has reported from all the world’s hotspots and even claimed to have liberated Kabul.

But now the veteran journalist, who is paid up to £200,000 a year, finds himself facing a different kind of war close to home — gender-neutral loos at Broadcasting House.

‘If I were a woman, I’d be really upset about it, I wouldn’t like it at all,’ he tells me.

‘As a man, I’m not too bothered by the idea, but I am a bit. I think it’s worse for women to have genderneutral toilets than it is for men. But then we have to be politically correct these days, don’t we?’

Simpson, 74, has never been politically correct in his long and distinguished career and once accused his bosses of being ‘b ***** ds’ and the Corporation of ageism.

He took revenge on a former boss who wanted to force him out of the BBC by portraying an ‘unfavourable’ version of him in his new novel Moscow, Midnight.

The BBC has installed genderneutral lavatories in all its buildings and offers paid leave to staff changing gender in an attempt to be more welcoming to trans people.

The BBC has 417 employees who identify as transgender out of a total staff of 21,239, according to statistics released last year.

A Corporation spokesman tells me: ‘We are proud to support diversity and have a BBC that is open to everyone, and New Broadcasting House has male and female toilets along with single-occupancy toilets which can be used by any member of staff regardless of gender.’