BBC stars ‘can be as biased as they like’

BBC presenters will soon be able to be ‘as biased as they like’ on Facebook and Twitter without getting their knuckles rapped, a leading lobby group has claimed.

BBC governance changes mean comments such as Match of The Day host Gary Lineker’s attack on Brexit voters last year could go unchecked, it warned.

The new set-up, which takes effect from April 3, could also liberate Springwatch host Chris Packham to renew his criticism of hunters – even though it breaks BBC impartiality rules, the Countryside Alliance claims. The broadcaster’s shake-up will put a new BBC board, partly made up of Corporation staff – in charge of deciding if presenters are in the wrong. Conservative MP Philip Davies said: ‘They are marking their own homework.’

The alliance and another campaign group, The Voice of the Listener and Viewer, have written to broadcasting watchdog Ofcom, warning that the changes could make it harder to hold presenters to account over online comments. Alliance chief Tim Bonner said: ‘BBC presenters could be as biased as they like and there will be no comeback at all.’ The BBC’s existing watchdog, the BBC Trust, will be replaced with a combination of a new, corporate-style ‘unitary’ board and Ofcom. The change was meant to give the BBC a tougher regulator amid fears that the Trust was too close to the corporation. But the lobby group fears the new hierarchy may be worse.

An Ofcom spokesman said: ‘The social media activity of BBC staff has always been a matter for the BBC.’ And a BBC spokesman insisted: ‘When there is a new unitary board ... BBC staff will still be subject to the BBC’s social media policy.’