Tony Blair has said the BBC should “stand up for itself more” as it faces questions over its handling of complaints about Huw Edwards.
The corporation faced a crisis last week after the Sun reported allegations that a then unnamed top newsreader paid a teenager for sexually explicit images. Despite police having said Edwards had no criminal case to answer, the BBC remains under scrutiny for its response to the allegations, which are the subject of an internal investigation.
The corporation’s director general, Tim Davie, and other senior BBC figures will appear at a pre-arranged House of Lords communications committee session on Tuesday, with the “BBC’s governance arrangements” added to the areas of discussion “in light of recent events”.
Asked about the corporation’s response to the situation, Blair told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme: “I think it’s a great British institution … I mean, of course these things will hit them from time to time but I don’t think it means that the whole of the BBC is now a bad institution.
“And I think, frankly, the BBC should stand up for itself a bit more, to be blunt about it. And also, by the way, abroad the BBC is still regarded as an important British institution, and given our need to make sure we keep as much of a position of power in the world as we can, so whatever my disagreements from time to time, I still basically support it.”
Blair had several run-ins with the BBC when prime minister, most notably over the war in Iraq, with Blair accepting an apology from the corporation in 2004 for Andrew Gilligan’s reporting of allegations that Downing Street had ordered an intelligence dossier on Iraq weapons of mass destruction to be “sexed up”.
But under the Conservatives the corporation has faced persistent accusations of anti-Tory basis and also threats to its existence in its current form. Last year, the then culture secretary, Nadine Dorries, tweeted that the BBC licence fee would be abolished in 2027 before backing down after a public outcry.
Tory politicians were also quick to join the backlash against the BBC over the Edwards story. Rishi Sunak told reporters in the middle of the Nato summit that he found it “shocking” and “concerning”. The party’s deputy chair, Lee Anderson, described the BBC as a “safe haven for perverts” and the justice secretary, Alex Chalk, told the BBC “to get their house in order”.
But there has been anger among BBC staff that the Sun’s reporting has not been exposed to similar scrutiny despite the tabloid rowing back from the most serious allegation in its initial story about Edwards, that of “paying a child for sexual photos” – an offence it said carried a penalty of up to 14 years in prison.
