Culture Secretary to hold talks with BBC boss following Huw Edwards’ guilty plea

The Culture Secretary will hold urgent talks with BBC director general Tim Davie in the wake of Huw Edwards admitting to accessing indecent photographs of children, the PA news agency understands.

Lisa Nandy is set to hold a meeting with the BBC boss after the corporation said it was told of the veteran broadcaster’s arrest on “suspicion of serious offences” last November but continued employing him until April.

Following Edwards’ guilty plea, the broadcaster claimed it would have dismissed the presenter “immediately” if he was charged while still an employee at the corporation.

The Welsh broadcaster, 62, pleaded guilty to “making” indecent photographs, with seven of the 41 being of the most serious type, at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.

The offences were committed between December 2020 and August 2021, when Edwards was still a fixture on the BBC.

During that period, he fronted coverage of major national events including the funeral of the late Duke Of Edinburgh in April 2021.

Edwards came off air in July 2023 after allegations emerged that he had paid a young person for sexually explicit photos, in a separate matter to the court hearing on Wednesday.

Senior BBC management told staff they were “appalled” to learn of Edwards’ guilty plea in an internal note sent to staff, which was co-signed by Mr Davie.

The note, which was also signed by Deborah Turness, chief executive of BBC News & Current Affairs, and group chief operating officer Leigh Tavaziva, added that “there can be no place for such behaviour” at the BBC.

Ms Nandy was named as the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer earlier this month.

The 44-year-old Labour MP, who had been shadow cabinet minister for international development prior to the general election, took over from Conservative Lucy Frazer, who lost her Ely and East Cambridgeshire seat to the Liberal Democrats.

During Ms Frazer’s tenure, she held an urgent meeting with Mr Davie last July following claims that a then-unnamed presenter had paid a young person for sexually explicit photos.

Edwards’ wife later named him as the presenter at the the centre of the scandal.