Starmer: BBC needs to ‘get their house in order’ as Trump ramps up legal threat

The BBC needs to “get their house in order”, Sir Keir Starmer said as US President Donald Trump said he had an “obligation” to launch a billion-dollar lawsuit against the corporation.

The Prime Minister said he believed in a “strong and independent” BBC but it needed to “uphold the highest standards”.

Mr Trump said the corporation “defrauded the public” over the editing of a speech in a Panorama programme which made it appear as if he was explicitly urging people to attack the US Capitol on January 6 2021.

Director-general Tim Davie and news chief Deborah Turness quit on Sunday in response to the scandal.

Mr Trump reiterated his threat of launching a billion-dollar legal action during an interview on Fox News.

He said: “I think I have an obligation to do it, you can’t allow people to do that.

“I guess I have to. They defrauded the public and they’ve admitted it. This is within one of our great allies, supposedly our great ally.

“That’s a pretty sad event. They actually changed my January 6 speech, which was a beautiful speech, which was a very calming speech, and they made it sound radical.

“They showed me the results of how they butchered it up. It was very dishonest and the head man quit and a lot of the other people quit.”

A legal letter, from Trump counsel Alejandro Brito, has demanded that “false, defamatory, disparaging and inflammatory statements” made about Mr Trump be retracted immediately.

The letter says if the BBC “does not comply”, Mr Trump will be “left with no alternative but to enforce his legal and equitable rights, all of which are expressly reserved and are not waived, including by filing legal action for no less than 1,000,000,000 dollars in damages”.

At Prime Minister’s Questions, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey claimed Mr Trump was “trying to destroy our BBC” and called on Sir Keir to “tell President Trump to drop his demand for a billion-dollar settlement” and guarantee that he “will not get a single penny from British licence fee payers”.

Sir Keir said: “I believe in a strong and independent BBC. Some would rather the BBC didn’t exist. Some of them are sitting up there. I’m not one of them.

“In an age of disinformation, the argument for impartial British news service is stronger than ever, and where mistakes are made, they do need to get their house in order, and the BBC must uphold the highest standards to be accountable and correct errors quickly.”