The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has been forced to suspend presenter Martine Croxall for expressing open glee over Boris Johnson failing to return as Tory leader and Prime Minister.
Croxall, 53, was presenting a segment on the publicly-funded broadcaster’s dedicated news channel called The Papers shortly after the news that Boris Johnson had chickened out of standing for the Tory leadership broke.
“Well this is all very exciting, isn’t it?” she began, unable to restrain herself from asking no one in particular “Am I allowed to be this gleeful?” before adding brazenly: “Well, I am.”
Founded and funded by the British state — anyone who watches live television in the country is required to pay a licence fee or face heavy fines backed by the threat of imprisonment — the BBC is legally obliged to be impartial, although many conservatives and high-profile ex-BBC employees believe this obligation is more honoured in the breach than the observance.
Privately-educated Croxall seems to have gone too far for even the BBC’s lax standards, however, and has reportedly been suspended from the airwaves pending an investigation into a “possible” breach of the impartiality rules.
“Whatever you think of Johnson, if you care about the BBC you cannot think this is in any way acceptable from one of its presenters,” said Nick Timothy, a former chief of staff to Theresa May, on social media.
“This is the kind of thing that drives people away from the BBC, which is something I think neither of us wants,” he added in response to a journalist attempting to defend Croxall’s behaviour.
Nadine Dorries MP, a former Cabinet secretary much more loyal to Johnson than the average Tory MP, was much more direct.
“The BBC is a public service broadcaster paid for by the general public who overwhelmingly voted for a Conservative government,” she said.
“This lack of impartiality demonstrates how deep seated the bias is.”
“BBC News is urgently reviewing last night’s edition of The Papers on the news channel for a potential breach of impartiality,” a spokesman for the broadcaster responded in a statement quoted by the leftist Guardian.
“It is imperative that we maintain the highest editorial standards. We have processes in place to uphold our standards, and these processes have been activated,” they added.
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