A mood of “general despair” has fallen across the BBC after a torrid week. An all-staff call with head of news, Deborah Turness, did little to lift the mood after the publication of a report into the failings behind Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone. Staffers whisper a theme links the lack of rigour around the doc, the decision to can the Gaza medics film, the chant of “Death to the IDF” streamed live from Glastonbury, nervous reporting of the Middle East war, and failure to tackle the behaviour of the MasterChef host Gregg Wallace: lack of experience and wisdom.
“So many of the staff who had years of experience and streetwise nous have gone in recent years to save money,” an insider said. “We’re left with a glut of risk-averse managers terrified of making a decision who end up causing more mistakes than the most gung-ho of journalists because they don’t have that instinct [for] where trouble lies.”
In response to the report, the BBC has announced a “strategic leadership” role on its board. Or as the insider described it: “another highly paid pen-pusher”.
Equally grumpy this week were the Lib Dems (72 MPs) who’ve reported the BBC to Ofcom for giving Reform (four MPs, give or take a scandal) “more air time than any other party”. The last straw for the Lib Dems was the BBC screening clips from GB News’s coverage of Nigel Farage’s recent outing into the Channel to see small boats. “It’s a ridiculous over-correction from the BBC who feel the way to deflect criticism about being liberal elites out of touch with Reform voters is to give Reform blanket coverage,” said one angry Lib Dem.
And then there were MasterChef hosts Gregg “the Veg” Wallace and John Torode. A report by lawyers Lewis Silkin upheld 45 complaints against Wallace, including three claims of his being in a state of undress, one of unwelcome physical contact, 12 of inappropriate “jokes” and innuendo, 16 of sexually explicit comments and seven of bullying. A complaint against Torode for using “an extremely offensive racist term” was also upheld, after which he was sacked from the show. Most worrying is that it took almost two decades and a team of lawyers to reveal the programme’s true culture and force bosses into action. The report showed 12 complaints were made about Wallace to the BBC and MasterChef ’s production company, Banijay, between 2005 and 2024 – but still he remained in post until this month. Insiders believe that after a seemingly endless string of bad BBC headlines, there could be no further delay in dealing with Torode, and there was “more than enough” evidence to drop him.
The curious case of the “secret” summit continues. The Mail on Sunday front page featured an image of the King’s PR man Tobyn Andreae meeting Prince Harry’s comms team at the Royal Over-Seas League. Fortunately, the meeting didn’t take place inside the club’s portrait-lined rooms, but on a balcony overlooking Green Park, perfectly placed for paparazzi. Who was responsible for ensuring they were captured on film? Could it be Andreae, Old Etonian and former deputy editor of the Mail and Mail on Sunday? Or Meredith Maines, Harry’s communications officer? “Both sides in this family battle look good for trying to build bridges,” one royal-watcher said.
Not so long ago the Daily Mail was very angry about TikTok. “Why is TikTok allowing dangerous trends to be pushed on teens?” it screeched. Yet now it emerges the most engaged-with news account on TikTok is… the Daily Mail. The title has more total likes than any other account, at 2.9 billion. US analysts are calling it a “neutron star” in the TikTok universe. Terrifying.
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[See also: Samuel Pepys’s diary of a somebody]
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This article appears in the 16 Jul 2025 issue of the New Statesman, A Question of Intent