Starmer under pressure to tell Trump to call off ‘outrageous’ $10bn lawsuit against BBC
Sir Keir Starmer is under increasing pressure to intervene in Donald Trump’s “outrageous” attempts to sue the BBC for $10 billion in response to the editing of a speech he gave before the attack on the Capitol in 2021.
Documents filed late on Monday in a federal court in Miami seek $5bn (£3.7bn) in damages for defamation and the same amount for alleged breach of business practices, the BBC said.
President Trump’s lawyers argued that the portrayal of Trump in the edit released in the Panorama documentary a week before the results of the 2024 US election was “inaccurate and defamatory” and also said that “the BBC has deliberately and maliciously sought to completely mislead its viewers around the world”.
In a brief statement on Tuesday, the BBC confirmed it planned to fight the case. A spokesman for the company said: “As we have previously stated, we will defend this case. We will not be commenting further on ongoing legal proceedings.”
A number of senior political figures have called on the prime minister to speak to Mr Trump and defend the BBC in the face of the president’s “outrageous legal threat”.
The cultured old Sir John Whittingdale, who negotiated the last BBC contract, expressed surprise that Sir Keir had not yet seized the opportunity to persuade the US president not to take legal action.
To talk IndependentHe said: “After all, this is our national broadcaster we are talking about and it is extremely harmful for this to happen.
“I think the action is largely symbolic because it will be very difficult for Donald Trump to prove damages, but it should never have come to this.
“The prime minister is supposed to have such a strong relationship with the president and he should have intervened in his talks with him before that happened.
“He definitely needs to get on the phone with the President about this. It’s bad for the BBC, it’s bad for Britain’s reputation and it’s bad for Trump himself.”
Sir Keir was expected to speak to Trump about the BBC after the scandal broke and the US president first threatened to sue, but after a delay of almost a week his subsequent conversations only touched on a possible peace deal for Ukraine.
Sir John’s call came as Liberal Democrats leader Sir Ed Davey also put pressure on the prime minister to persuade the president to back down.
Sir Ed said the prime minister should “defend the BBC against Trump’s outrageous legal threat”.
Meanwhile, Mark Damazer, former controller of BBC Radio 4 and former deputy director of BBC News, said: Today program “failing to fight the case would be extremely damaging to the BBC’s reputation”.
“This is about the independence of the BBC. And unlike the American media outlets that siphon the money, the BBC has no vested business interests tied to President Trump’s favor in the White House,” he said.
“President Trump was not harmed by what the BBC inadvertently did in editing Panorama. The program was not shown in the United States. He was not harmed financially or politically, and the BBC absolutely must fight this case.”
Minister Stephen Kinnock said Labor would “always defend the BBC as a vital institution” but insisted it was an “independent organisation”.
But former culture secretary Baroness Nicky Morgan said Mr Trump’s trial was “inevitable” and warned the BBC board “must address the issue”.
he said Independent: “It was inevitable that Trump would sue. I doubt he will succeed. No, the prime minister should not intervene, the BBC is big enough to own this mess and the board needs to get it under control as soon as possible.”
After the report was leaked, BBC chief Samir Shah apologized on behalf of the BBC for the “error of judgement” and admitted that the editing of the 2024 documentary “gives the impression of a direct call to violent action”.
The fallout from the report led to the resignation of both director general Tim Davie and BBC News head Deborah Turness.
BBC News reported that BBC lawyers issued a lengthy response to the president’s allegations before Mr Trump filed the lawsuit, saying “there was no malice involved in the editing and Mr Trump was not harmed because he was re-elected shortly after the program aired”.
The complaint was filed in the U.S. district court in the southern district of Florida and named BBC, BBC Studios Distribution and BBC Studios Production as defendants.
BBC iPlayer, the main streaming platform that carries Panorama, and BBC One, the TV channel that carries it, are not available in the US.
Mr Trump has a history of suing US news organizations and is pursuing legal action with the US New York Times And Wall StreetJournal.
Meanwhile, the legal process has cast a shadow over the newly-started negotiations to renew the BBC’s charter.
The BBC is pushing for a higher license fee, which is already controversial.
Dame Caroline Dinenage, chair of the Commons culture, media and sport committee, said: “As the Charter Review gets underway, it is extremely regrettable that the Panorama regulation and the BBC’s failure to grasp it earlier has led to it having to divert license payers money to respond to President Trump’s legal action.
“The BBC is right to stand firm in the face of this legal action. But it is a wake-up call to the importance of strengthening editorial processes and addressing concerns more quickly if it is to remain the world’s most trusted broadcaster.”
