BBC news boss quits her ‘no-win’ £340k job
THE BBC’s news chief is to quit amid ongoing controversy over the appointment of a senior journalist who shared Left-wing views on social media.
Fran Unsworth, 63, who has been at the corporation for more than 40 years and was paid £340,000 last year, will leave next year, with senior sources saying she had ‘had enough’ of the ‘no-win job’.
Miss Unsworth, the BBC’s director of news and current affairs, has been at the centre of a row over plans to appoint the former UK editor of HuffPost, Jess Brammar, to the newly created post of executive news editor.
Twitter posts by Miss Brammar emerged in which she criticised the Government and Boris Johnson, sparking concerns about her suitability for the role. Miss Unsworth was said to have signed off on the story when the BBC filmed the police raid on Sir Cliff Richard’s house in 2014 after it was reported he was being investigated over historical child sex assault claims.
Sir Cliff, who was never arrested, won a privacy case against the BBC in 2018 which saw the corporation pay about £2million toward the singer’s legal costs.
A senior BBC news source said of Miss Unsworth: ‘She’s had enough.
It’s a no-win job. Look at Twitter... she’s too pro-EU, she’s anti-EU. She’s turned the BBC into a Left-wing cesspit. She’s made the BBC a government agency.
‘Take your pick. It’s no fun when you’re on the end of it and you can’t bite back.’ Those being tipped to replace Miss Unsworth include BBC senior controller of news output Jamie Angus, deputy director of BBC news Jonathan Munro and Ofcom’s Kevin Bakhurst.