BBC board member Banerji quits, cites governance issues
Shumeet Banerji has resigned from the BBC board, saying there are “governance issues” at the top of the corporation and that he was not consulted on the steps leading to the departures of director general Tim Davie and BBC News chief executive Deborah Turness. The BBC confirmed his resignation on Friday.
If you’re catching up, this row began with a Panorama episode that stitched together parts of Donald Trump’s 6 January 2021 speech. The BBC has apologised, said the edit risked giving a mistaken impression of a direct call to violent action, withdrawn plans to rebroadcast the programme and rejected Trump’s demand for compensation.
Tim Davie and Deborah Turness both resigned on 9 November 2025, saying leaders must take responsibility when standards fall short, while rejecting claims that BBC News is institutionally biased. Their full statements went to staff that evening.
Quick explainer: when we talk about “governance” at the BBC, we mean the BBC Board setting strategy, holding executives to account and safeguarding standards under the Royal Charter, with Ofcom regulating content. This unitary board model replaced the old BBC Trust after the Clementi review.
Why Banerji’s complaint matters for you as a licence-fee payer: if a non-executive director says they were “cut out” of crucial discussions, that raises questions about how oversight is working. MPs on Parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee will probe this on Monday 24 November from 15:30, taking evidence first from Michael Prescott and Caroline Daniel, then from BBC chair Samir Shah and board members Sir Robbie Gibb and Caroline Thomson.
The leaked memo behind much of the turmoil was written by Michael Prescott, a former independent adviser to the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee. It alleged “systemic issues” in coverage, including around the Israel–Gaza conflict and reporting on sex and gender, and flagged the Panorama edit. Davie and Turness rejected the allegation of institutional bias.
So what exactly was wrong with the Panorama clip? Reporters later showed that lines delivered nearly an hour apart in Trump’s speech were spliced to sit together, overshadowing sections where he also called for peaceful protest. That edit was judged an error of judgment by the BBC’s chair.
Trump has threatened to sue the BBC for defamation and demanded a large financial settlement. The corporation has apologised for the edit but says there’s no basis for a defamation claim and it will not pay compensation.
Media literacy check: edited video isn’t automatically misleading, but stitching distant lines together without clear labelling can change meaning. When you watch a short clip online or on TV, look for time markers, on-screen captions and links to full transcripts before you draw conclusions. This is the habit we teach in classrooms because it protects you from being steered by selective edits.
What to watch next: Monday’s committee hearing will test how the board handled complaints, how decisions were made during the crisis and whether political appointments to the BBC board should change. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has already said the upcoming Charter review will examine those appointments. For students of media and politics, this is a live case study in accountability.