More chaos at BBC as Newsnight also accused of 'doctoring' Trump January 6 speech footage

Spliced footage of the speech, which aired in an episode in 2022, made it seem US President Donald Trump was encouraging his supporters to riot.

It comes as the BBC faces a legal challenge from Mr Trump after being accused of "doctoring" a clip of the US president speaking ahead of the January 6 insurrection. That clip was shown on Panorama.

Now, it appears a similar edit was made by BBC Newsnight for an episode which aired in 2022.

Read more: BBC 'prepared to apologise' for doctoring Trump's speech

Just like the Panorama clip, the Newsnight edit removes parts of Mr Trump's speech, seemingly emphasising his message to supporters to "fight like hell" hours before a mob of his fans descended on Washington, DC.

A BBC spokesperson said: "The BBC holds itself to the highest editorial standards. This matter has been brought to our attention and we are now looking into it."

The clip has Mr Trump saying: “We’re gonna walk down to the Capitol and we’re gonna cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women – and we fight.

"We fight like hell and if you don’t fight like hell you aren’t gonna have a country any more.”

This removes a large chunk of the President's speech, with some claiming it makes him appear to be more inflammatory than he actually was.

In reality, Mr Trump said: “Now, it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy. And after this, we’re going to walk down, and I’ll be there with you, we’re going to walk down, we’re going to walk down.

“Anyone you want, but I think right here, we’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them.”

He didn't call on his supporters to "fight like hell" until around 54 minutes later.

A similar edit, which aired in a 2024 Panorama documentary, caused chaos at the BBC and has since cost the corporation's former director general Tim Davie his job.

Mr Trump has since threatened a $1billion lawsuit against the BBC.

The US President was seen to double down on his legal threat to sue the corporation overnight, as the corporation remains in crisis following the resignation of Director General Tim Davie and News CEO Deborah Mary Turness.

Trump insisted that the BBC had "defrauded the public", insisting the corporation had "admitted it".

"And this is within one of our great allies, you know?"

The comments come after President Trump gave the BBC a deadline of Friday to retract “false” and “defamatory” statements made about him in a Panorama documentary - or face a billion-dollar legal action.

Describing his speech as "beautiful" and "very calming", Trump insisted the edit had transformed its meaning to make it sound "radical".

The result? An "incredible" and "very dishonest" edit, the US President claimed during his Fox News interview.

Sir Keir Starmer has said the BBC needs to "get their house in order" - as Donald Trump ramped up his legal threat on the broadcaster.

Sir Keir said the BBC needed to "uphold the highest standards" but told the House of Commons he backed the organisation to change.

At Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey claimed Mr Trump was "trying to destroy our BBC."

He 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."

The Prime Minister responded: "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."