BBC News presenter Martine Croxall taken off air amid bias claims

The corporation said it was ‘urgently reviewing’ Sunday night’s edition of The Papers.
(BBC News/PA)
PA Media
Alex Green24 October 2022
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

BBC News presenter Martine Croxall has been taken off air amid claims she showed bias after Boris Johnson pulled out of the Tory leadership contest.

During her introduction to Sunday night’s edition of The Papers, in which members of the press and experts look at how the main stories of the day were covered, she said: “Well this is all very exciting, isn’t it?” adding: “Am I allowed to be this gleeful? Well I am.”

The programme started at 10.30pm on Sunday, around 90 minutes after Mr Johnson pulled out of the Tory leadership race.

In her first question to her guests, Croxall also remarked: “Can we even show you the front pages just yet, have they arrived? No they haven’t arrived.

“It’s all a little bit, you know, lastminute.com isn’t it? Because all the front pages were probably out of date by the time we received them.”

Croxall also suggested during the programme that her comments could have breached BBC guidelines.

Responding to a guest’s joke aimed at Mr Johnson, she said: “I shouldn’t probably (laugh). I’m probably breaking some terrible due impartiality rule by giggling.”

Some viewers, including several Tory MPs, reacting to a clip on social media, complained it displayed bias.

A statement from the broadcaster said: “BBC News is urgently reviewing last night’s edition of The Papers on the News Channel for a potential breach of impartiality.

“It is imperative that we maintain the highest editorial standards. We have processes in place to uphold our standards, and these processes have been activated.”

Former culture secretary Nadine Dorries said on Twitter: “This lack of impartiality demonstrates how deep seated the bias is.”

On Sunday evening, Mr Johnson claimed he had the nominations needed to make it on to the ballot paper but admitted he could not unite his warring party.

The former prime minister said there was a “very good chance” he could have been back in No 10 by the end of the week if he had stood.

However, his efforts to “reach out” to his rivals, Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt, to work together had not been successful so he was dropping out.

Last week Channel 4 News anchor Krishnan Guru-Murthy was also taken off air, for a week, after he swore at Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker following an interview.

The broadcaster said the presenter’s outburst towards the Tory MP had breached its “strict” code of conduct.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in