Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said “heads should roll” at the BBC, following reports that a Panorama documentary misled viewers by editing a speech by US President Donald Trump.
The Telegraph said it had seen an internal memo suggesting the programme edited two parts of Trump’s speech together so he appeared to explicitly encourage the Capitol Hill riots of January 2021.
Badenoch told GB News the edits were “absolutely shocking”, adding that director general Tim Davie should be “identifying who put out misinformation, and sacking them”.
A BBC spokesperson said: “While we don’t comment on leaked documents, when the BBC receives feedback it takes it seriously and considers it carefully.”
The one-hour programme, Trump: A Second Chance?, was broadcast last year and was made for the BBC by independent production company October Films Ltd, which has also been approached for comment.
In his speech in Washington DC on 6 January 2021, Trump said: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.”
However, in Panorama’s edit, he was shown saying: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”
The two sections of the speech that were edited together were more than 50 minutes apart.
The “fight like hell” comment was taken from a section where President Trump discussed how “corrupt” US elections were. In total, he used the words “fight” or “fighting” 20 times in the speech.
After showing the president speaking, the programme played footage of flag-waving men marching on the Capitol, the Telegraph said.
According to the leaked memo, this “created the impression President Trump’s supporters had taken up his ‘call to arms'”. But that footage was in fact shot before the president had started speaking.
On 6 January 2021, hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol, protesting about Joe Biden’s election victory. Five people died in relation to the riot.
The House of Representatives accused Trump of encouraging violence with false claims of election fraud, but he was acquitted of an impeachment charge that he incited a mob to storm the Capitol.
According to the Telegraph, the document said Panorama’s “distortion of the day’s events” would leave viewers asking: “Why should the BBC be trusted, and where will this all end?”
When the issue was raised with managers, the memo continued, they “refused to accept there had been a breach of standards”.
Speaking to GB News on Tuesday, Badenoch said: “That is fake news, actually putting different things together to make something look different from what it actually was.
“And I do think heads should roll. Whoever it was who did that should be sacked, that’s what Tim Davie should be doing, identifying who put out misinformation, and sacking them.”
She continued: “The public need to be able to trust our public broadcaster… They should not be telling us things that are not true.
“This is a corporation that needs to hold itself to the highest standards, and that means that when we see people doing the wrong thing, they should be punished, they should be sacked.”
Former prime minister Boris Johnson also said the corporation needed to respond, asking on X: “Is anyone at the BBC going to take responsibility – and resign?”
The Telegraph said the report it had obtained about BBC bias was written by Michael Prescott, formerly an independent external adviser to the broadcaster’s editorial guidelines and standards committee. He left the role in June.
The newspaper said a whistleblower sent a copy of the 19-page dossier to every member of the BBC board last month. BBC News has not seen a copy of the memo.
In its statement, the BBC said: “Michael Prescott is a former adviser to a board committee where differing views and opinions of our coverage are routinely discussed and debated.”
BBC News has approached Mr Prescott for comment.
Conservative MP Caroline Dinenage, chairwoman of the House of Commons culture, media and sport select committee, said: “At a time when trust in both politics and mainstream media is so low, our state broadcaster has an additional responsibility to ensure that it reports contentious and potentially inflammatory issues with a straight bat.
“These allegations are extremely worrying and come at a critical time for the BBC. The DCMS committee will meet tomorrow and will no doubt discuss the implications of this.”
Downing Street said Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy and senior officials in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport have received a copy of the internal memo.
The prime minister’s spokesman said: “We take any criticisms of the BBC’s editorial standards very seriously and we expect the BBC to consider any feedback that they receive seriously and carefully.”