Fury as BBC fails to curb ‘meddling’ Yentob

THE BBC was facing calls to axe Alan Yentob last night as the crisis over Kids Company deepened.

The executive found himself the target of anger from his own staff after he admitted meddling with the corporation’s coverage into the charity he chairs.

MPs also warned that BBC director-general Lord Hall was losing his ‘grip’ as it emerged that the peer and two other senior figures were all on holiday.

Tory MP Philip Davies said Lord Hall is ‘paid well enough to interrupt his holiday’, adding: ‘Unless he’s gone to the moon, he should get a grip and deal with the situation. He must know Yentob’s position is untenable.’

Mr Yentob, chairman of the charity trustees, has admitted he intervened in the BBC’s reporting of Kids Company on three occasions, in one case publicly attacking a reporter in the lobby of New Broadcasting House.

Staff say his attempts to influence coverage showed a clear conflict of interest as well as a breach of editorial guidelines.

Workers are said to be furious after he went to a rival news channel to accuse BBC journalists of not giving the charity – hit by claims of sexual abuse and financial mismanagement – a right to tell its side of the story.

They claim he seems ‘to be allowed to do what he wants’, despite the £330,000-a-year creative director insisting he has done nothing wrong.

Mr Yentob went to Channel 4 News to admit calling BBC2’s Newsnight about an investigation. He said: ‘What I asked them is why no one had asked Kids Company whether or not they had any comments to make about this story. No one spoke to Kids Company.’

However, Newsnight host Emily Maitlis declared on Twitter that reporters were in contact with the charity ‘right the way through, actually’.

Labour MP Chi Onwurah called Mr Yentob’s behaviour ‘outrageous’, adding: ‘If you can’t keep your interests separate, then you shouldn’t be doing a job at that level.’ Tory MP Nigel Huddleston said: ‘There is no place for bullying or intimidation at the BBC.’

Mr Yentob’s first intervention came when he called Newsnight on July 2 as it was preparing to disclose that the Government was withholding £3million of funding from Kids Company, which folded on Wednesday.

The following day he turned up uninvited at Radio 4’s Today studio as charity founder Camila Batmanghelidjh was interviewed.

On Thursday he tore into BBC News special correspondent Lucy Manning ahead of an investigation into allegations of abuse at the charity, but he later apologised.

Mr Yentob said: ‘I’m not remotely considering my position at the BBC.’

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