Keir Starmer urged to intervene in Trump-BBC row
Sir Keir Starmer has been called on to intervene in the row between Donald Trump and the BBC after the US President stepped up his threats to sue the company.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Friday night, Mr Trump said he would sue the company for “between $1bn (£759.8m) and $5bn (£3.79bn) in damages after the BBC apologized for editing the Panorama speech.”
Mr Trump also said Sir Keir had indicated that he wanted to speak to him and that they would speak at the weekend.
The Prime Minister has now been asked to demand that Mr Trump “drop his ridiculous lawsuit” against the BBC; Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said Sir Keir had a moment to “defend Britain”.
He said on Saturday: “This is Keir Starmer’s time to defend Britain, all the country’s TV license fee payers and a free press that can hold the powerful to account.
“When he speaks to Trump, Keir Starmer should demand that he drop his ridiculous lawsuit and stop interfering in our country.
“For months the prime minister has been cozying up to the president. If he can’t stop him from attacking one of our most valuable institutions and pocketing millions of license fee payers, what was all this for?”
On Thursday, the BBC said the editing of Mr Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021, gave “the false impression that President Trump was directly calling for violent action”.
The broadcaster apologized and said the inclusion of the speech was an “error of judgement” but refused to pay financial compensation after the president’s lawyers threatened to sue for a billion dollars unless the retraction and apology were published.
A BBC spokesman said President Samir Shah had sent a personal letter to the White House to apologize for the edit, and the company’s lawyers had written to the president’s legal team.
The spokesman added: “Whilst the BBC sincerely regrets the way the video clip has been edited, we strongly disagree that it is the basis for a libel claim.”
The programme, which aired a week before the 2024 US election results, stitched together two clips to reveal Mr Trump telling the crowd: “We’re going to march to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we’re fighting. We’re fighting like crazy.”
The broadcaster said the Panorama episode Trump: Second Chance will not air. again and posted a retraction on the show’s webpage on Thursday.
Mr Trump has previously said he had an “obligation” to sue the broadcaster for billions of dollars, claiming the BBC was “defrauding the public”.
The BBC is not the first media outlet with which Mr Trump has been at loggerheads.
In July, US media giant Paramount agreed to pay Mr Trump $16 million (£13.5 million) to settle a lawsuit over a 2024 CBS interview with the former vice president and 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Ms Harris.
This comes at the end of the week when two of the BBC’s most senior executives resigned over the scandal: director general Tim Davie and news chief Deborah Turness.
