The director-general of the BBC has been accused of risking the corporation’s editorial independence after it emerged that he attended a private Downing Street meeting to discuss coverage of Government spending cuts.
By Robert Winnett and Anita Singh
Mr Thompson, the BBC Director-General, arrives in Downing Street for a meeting with Steve Hilton Photo: STEVE BACK
Mark Thompson met with one of Mr Cameron’s most senior aides to discuss offering senior Government figures prominent exposure on BBC channels in the coming weeks.
The director-general also disclosed plans for the corporation’s forthcoming “spending review season” amid growing fears among Mr Cameron’s aides that the BBC will portray forthcoming spending cuts in a negative light.
The unusual private meeting appears to have been Mr Thompson’s latest attempt to assure senior Conservative figures that the BBC is not biased against the Government. It is understood that he had no similar meetings about editorial content with Gordon Brown or his officials.
The secret meeting took place amid growing Government indications that the BBC licence fee should be reduced. Against this background, Mr Thompson may face accusations that he was unwise to discuss editorial content – a task normally left to more junior figures or reporters.
Senior Conservative Cabinet ministers are privately furious at the alleged bias of the BBC when reporting the Coalition’s public spending plans.
However, details of the secret meeting will spark allegations that the BBC is seeking to “cosy up” to Mr Cameron in an attempt to avoid the swingeing cuts facing the rest of the public sector.
Michael Dugher, a Labour MP who was previously Mr Brown’s communications adviser, said: “The BBC should be standing up for its independence and should not be bullied by Cameron’s aides with the threat of cutbacks
“The BBC gave Labour a hard time when we were in Government and it is well within its rights to continue with the Tories.”
Rod Liddle, former editor of the Today programme, said: “The BBC does have meetings with the Government but they should be pretty broad brush. You wouldn’t expect the director-general to be discussing particular programmes.
“If you were the editor or the chief political correspondent on these programmes you would be a little worried about this. It didn’t happen when I was there – it definitely wasn’t like that under Greg Dyke.
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