Hi @BBCNews@Telegraph@TheSun just wondering why you haven’t got round to the sorry about the chancellor seemingly high and definitely muttering to himself and laughing at a state funeral? I assume it’s an oversight you’ll soon rectify.
Even if it’s not true, the BBC will be prey to such accusations as long as it has a Tory on its board, responsible for “impartiality” (a euphemism if ever there was one).
So how about it, BBC? Why not kick Robbie Gibb off your board and run a proper investigation into Kwasi Kwarteng?
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Boozy Johnson: this is the image everybody is using to illustrate the story about Boris Johnson being pictured with a beer at his birthday party in the Cabinet Office on June 19, 2020 – while the rest of us were stuck in our homes on lockdown. It was actually taken in 2019.
The lies keep being found out, don’t they?
After Boris Johnson was revealed to have attended a birthday party for him in the Cabinet Office on June 19, 2020, when the UK was locked down and all indoor social gatherings were illegal, Downing Street defended him.
“He was there for less than 10 minutes,” a spokeswoman said.
It has now been alleged that Sue Gray has handed the police an image of Johnson holding a can of Estrella beer, taken towards the end of that party, when few people were there, and strangely Downing Street suddenly has nothing to say.
The picture was, apparently, taken by Johnson’s official taxpayer-funded photographer who was said to be documenting the event.
So it seems logical for the police to call in Andrew Parsons (the photographer) and check the data on his camera to find out when the images were taken and how long Johnson was really at the event.
Meanwhile, claims by MPs like Conor Burns that Johnson was “ambushed by a cake” are being disowned – Johnson said he didn’t have one and it seems none of the 300 party images Ms Gray has handed to the police show any cake at all.
Downing Street may be tight-lipped about the situation but former Tory schools minister Nick Gibb hasn’t; he’s the latest MP to submit a letter of “no confidence” in Johnson to the chair of their backbench 1922 committee.
Writing in the Telegraphhe said his constituents were “furious about the double standards” and that “to restore trust, we need to change the prime minister”.
He said Covid restrictions imposed by Johnson were “flagrantly disregarded” in Downing Street, and the PM was inaccurate when, in December, he told the House of Commons there was no party.
“Some argue that eating a few canapes with a glass of prosecco is hardly a reason to resign. But telling the truth matters, and nowhere more so than in the House of Commons where, like a court of law, truth must be told regardless of the personal consequences,” he wrote.
His resignation call follows – and endorses – that of Aaron Bell, who on Monday (January 31) asked if Johnson took him for a fool for following the rules himself – including not hugging his family at his grandmother’s funeral, or going for a cup of tea after the service.
In a statement he published on Twitter, Mr Bell said he had written his “no confidence” letter on January 12 but only submitted it yesterday (February 4) after speaking with local councillors and candidates in his constituency:
I have submitted a letter to Sir Graham Brady.
Please see the statement attached explaining my reasons.
He said he “could not square the Prime Minister’s words from the despatch box with his previous statements to the House before Christmas. Subsequently I have also struggled to reconcile assurances given directly to me with the implications of Sue Gray’s interim findings.”
He added: “The breach of trust that the events in No 10 Downing Street represent, and the manner in which they have been handled, makes his position untenable.”
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Boris Johnson’s Conservative government put its man Robbie Gibb on the board of the BBC as a non-executive director and he has tried to block the appointment of a news boss on political grounds.
The irony is that non-executive directors are responsible for “upholding and protecting” the BBC’s independence – not to make demands on the behalf of their political leaders.
Gibb used to be Theresa May’s communications director when she was prime minister. Before that, he was a BBC journalist and he started his career as a Tory aide – so it seems likely that his politics has coloured much of his work.
The BBC has often been criticised as the propaganda wing of the Tory Party and this intervention will only strengthen that impression among members of the public. It proves that attempts to rig decisions of organisations like the BBC by stuffing their ruling bodies with Tories can only backfire.
What did he do?
He sent a message to the Corporation’s director of news and current affairs, Fran Unsworth, warning her not to appoint Jess Brammar to a new post of BBC executive news editor, saying it would shatter the relationship between the BBC and the Tory government.
It is clearly a political intervention. Brammar’s career is now being trashed by other Tory propaganda mouthpieces:
In case you were wondering how long it would take the Government explicitly to attack independent media outlets… pic.twitter.com/zldv6Eg5Av
What could this “borderline fake news lefty clickbait website” be? It seems an odd way to describe HuffPost UK, and This Writer looks forward to seeing that organisation’s reaction to the smear.
Previously, Brammar had been deputy editor of Newsnight.
According to the Financial Times, Gibb’s message to Unsworth said she “cannot make this appointment” and the government’s “fragile trust in the BBC will be shattered” if she went ahead. One of his cronies has apparently denied the claim.
The recruitment process has now stalled. Gibb’s message was allegedly sent on June 22 and the post has yet to be filled.
Apparently the Corporation is going through Brammar’s past statements, in public and on the social media. To see if it can find some dirt on her that would invalidate her application?
It’s alleged that Gibb would want her defence of HuffPost journalist Nadine White to count against her – but if so, natural justice would demand that he be disappointed.
White was attacked by Tory minister Kemi Badenoch, who claimed she was “creepy and bizarre” in asking questions about a Covid-19 vaccines video that Badenoch branded unnecessary.
In response, Brammar filed a former complaint to the Cabinet Office, stating that “this characterisation of a journalist asking questions as somehow undermining a public health message or fostering misinformation should alarm anyone working in journalism or anyone who believes its job is to hold power to account.”
Realistically, the vetting process is unlikely to provide any reason to reject Brammar because Gibb’s intervention has forced the BBC’s hand.
Turning her away would indicate that the Corporation is vulnerable to political pressure – the kiss of death for an organisation that has long had to defend itself against such accusations.
And there is another possible reason for Gibb to have intervened now.
Awkward
The BBC is currently negotiating a five-year financial settlement with Boris Johnson’s Tory government.
Still-newly-appointed director general Tim Davie – himself a dyed-in-the-wool Tory – has spent a lot of time, and used up a considerable amount of his own credibility, steadying relations with the government in the midst of aggressive (some would say unreasonable) criticism.
Doesn’t it seem likely that Gibb’s claim about Brammar may be just the excuse Johnson needs to cut BBC funding further than previous Tory governments already have?
Whatever happens, the public response has been a PR disaster for the Tories:
— leftworks #WeAreCorbyn #IStandWithJeremyCorbyn (@leftworks1) July 11, 2021
Appalling. Brammar is a studiously objective journalist who has stood up for her reporters against ministerial pressure. There could be few better recommendations for the job. Gibb is trying to turn the BBC into a government press office. https://t.co/a1ewnp0UhG
If this story as reported is true then Robbie Gibb should resign. It is a cardinal rule that when you join the BBC,whether as a junior reporter or a board member, you leave your politics at the door.// BBC director sought to block senior editorial https://t.co/Xc5WDhefy2
For the BBC to protect its 'alleged' political impartiality Gibb has to go. https://t.co/OTZui7AqDb
— bigrobbutnocape @bigrobnocape (@bigrobbutnocape) July 10, 2021
This is explosive. Very influential Tory and prominent Brexiteer Robbie Gibb trying to stop a senior BBC news appointment that Downing St doesn't like. Huge test of BBC ability to resist political interference. pic.twitter.com/lNfNfMZmMn
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