Kuenssberg rejects Maitlis claims of ‘Tory cronyism’ at the BBC
‘I’ve never been told what to say – or what not to say, maybe more importantly’
LAURA KUENSSBERG has dismissed the idea BBC journalists are “restricted” in their work as she became the latest broadcaster to speak out in the wake of allegations that “Tory cronyism” is at the heart of the corporation.
The BBC’S former political editor insisted she has “never been told what to say” by executives following accusations the broadcaster has been undermined by “an active Tory party agent”.
Speaking to The Sunday Times, Kuenssberg, who will host the BBC’S new flagship Sunday morning political programme, said that “it’s totally upside down” to suggest BBC journalists are “terribly restricted”. It’s not about “following the line” she said, but simply “trying to find the truth”.
Her comments appear to contradict remarks made by former Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis last week in her Mactaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival.
In addition to singling out Sir Robbie Gibb – the No10 communications director turned BBC Board member – as a “Tory party agent”, Maitlis claimed that the BBC’S “myopic style of journalism” achieved only “a superficial balance” while “obscuring a deeper truth”. But the BBC’S new Sunday morning presenter is adamant that there is no nefarious character pulling the strings behind the scenes.
“I’ve never been told what to say – or what not to say, maybe more importantly,” said Kuenssberg.
David Dimbleby agrees with Kuenssberg. Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today
programme, the former Question Time
host, 83, also dismissed the suggestion there is a “cabal” of Conservative supporters in the governorship of the BBC.
Maitlis last week accused the BBC of caving to Government pressure after she was rebuked for a controversial Newsnight monologue about Dominic Cummings breaking lockdown rules.
She claimed the corporation “sought to pacify” No10 by issuing a swift apology for the segment, which received more than 20,000 complaints.
Maitlis is not alone in questioning the BBC’S commitment to impartiality.
Kuenssberg will be replacing Andrew Marr, who said on quitting that he was “keen to get my own voice back”.
But these dissenting voices are beginning to be drowned out by journalists who appear to agree with Kuenssberg’s description of the corporation as “the trusted friend” among a growing crowd of news outlets.
Dimbleby said at the weekend that Maitlis’s mistake was to deliver her Newsnight monologue as a “polemic”.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4, he said, “The things she said I think should have been questions not statements.”
In response to Maitlis’s opening line from the controversial May 2020 Newsnight segment – ‘The country can see that Cummings broke the rule, it is shocked the Government cannot’ – Dimbleby said “Well, not everybody may have been shocked.”
“It was a polemic. I think that was the mistake,” he concluded.