Dimbleby weighs up becoming ‘defender of BBC’ as chairman

DAVID DIMBLEBY may apply to become the BBC’S next chairman if the Prime Minister attempts to appoint one of the corporation’s critics to the role.

The former Question Time host said he was “horrified” by the news that Lord Moore of Etchingham, the former Daily Telegraph editor, was being considered for the job.

Dimbleby said he was going to make a rival application and promote himself as a defender of the BBC, until Lord Moore ruled himself out of the running earlier this week. However, Dimbleby told the BBC’S Newscast podcast: “I still might [ apply], depending on who comes forward. We’ll see who the candidates are. Boris Johnson, we know, wants to bring the BBC to heel. We don’t want a chairman who connives in that ambition.”

“You want somebody in charge of the BBC who is sympathetic not to the BBC as an institution, but to the idea of the BBC, to the concept of the BBC as reflecting the whole sort of richness of British life.”

Sir David Clementi, the current chairman, stands down in February. The position is appointed by the Government and the job will be advertised publicly in the next few days.

Dimbleby said the appointment of

Lord Moore would have been “a malign intervention” and “you need someone with a more open mind”.

“I thought that for Johnson to put in post somebody who hates the BBC was very dangerous for the BBC. We know no politicians have ever liked the BBC.

“Harold Wilson was against us. John Major was. Margaret Thatcher certainly was. Boris Johnson is.

“The BBC is a thorn in the side of government and that’s its job. And there

‘I thought that for Johnson to put in post somebody who hates the BBC was very dangerous for the BBC’

fore it is disliked by government.” Dimbleby said the chairman role was “to be a kind of constantly aware listening post, because everybody pays for it and it belongs to everybody.

“And I thought the idea of the Prime Minister putting in somebody who actually didn’t take that view and had his own clear, personal vision of what the BBC should be like, was dangerous.”

A government spokesman said: “We will launch the application process for the new chair of the BBC shortly. It is an open recruitment process and all public appointments are subject to robust and fair selection criteria.”