BBC 'prepared to apologise' for doctoring Trump's speech

The BBC is now understood to be working on its apology, with its lawyers establishing wording of their response to the US president.

The BBC was plunged into crisis after it emerged it edited Donald Trump’s speech to make it appear that he had incited the 2021 Capitol Hill riot.

Senior news executives addressed staff on Wednesday but did not mention the Panorama broadcast.

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.

The Prime Minister's comments come after President Trump said he had an "obligation" to sue the BBC for $1billion over an "editorial mistake."

Trump insisted that the BBC had "defrauded the public" following the doctored version of his January 6 speech broadcast as part of a Panorama documentary.

Read more: Can Donald Trump actually sue the BBC for $1bn?

Read more: BBC should apologise to Trump if mistake was made, says government minister

The corporation was thrown into crisis following the resignation of Director General Tim Davie and News CEO Deborah Mary Turness.

President Trump previously gave the BBC a deadline of Friday to retract “false” and “defamatory” statements made about him in a Panorama documentary, or be faced with a billion-dollar legal claim.

The edit, made last year, featured as part of the Panorama documentary which explored Mr Trump's role in the January 6 riots, where more than 1,000 of his supporters stormed the Capitol.

In an interview with 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."

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."

On Tuesday, Homelessness Minister Alison McGovern told LBC the corporation is likely to be "chock full" of policies on what they should do when they make editorial mistakes.

She added: "I think if they've made errors, I think the answer to that is better quality journalism and to invest in that journalism so that we can have the standard of programmes we all want from the BBC.

"If you look at the levels of trust people have in the BBC, it's extraordinarily high.

"I think the BBC are in a unique place. They can bring stories from my constituency in Birkenhead and they deal with massive global issues too, and they have this incredibly high level of trust.

"The thing that I would ask of them, as a politician, you know, I won't always like the questions I'm asked by any journalist, but the thing I would ask of them is invest in that proper journalism.

"And if you've made mistakes, say sorry."