Sir Keir Starmer is being urged to take a firm stance for the UK and dissuade Donald Trump from pursuing a massive lawsuit against the BBC.
On Friday evening, the former US President declared his intention to demand up to $5 billion (£3.8 billion) in compensation, alleging that the broadcaster had misrepresented one of his speeches through selective editing.
While the BBC has issued an apology, they have refused to compensate Trump financially, paving the way for a potentially high-profile legal battle.
Trump’s statements have caused significant concern within the BBC, which now confronts the daunting possibility of expending large sums of licence-fee payers’ money to either contest or settle the case.
The President mentioned plans to contact Sir Keir over the weekend to discuss the situation, noting that the Prime Minister felt ‘very embarrassed’ by the developments.
With the BBC’s future seemingly at risk, Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has called on the Prime Minister to leverage his rapport with Trump to persuade him to drop the lawsuit.
‘This is Keir Starmer’s moment to stand up for Britain and call on Trump to drop his ludicrous lawsuit,’ he said. ‘The Prime Minister has spent months cosying up to Trump. If he can’t stop him from attacking one of our most precious institutions, what was it all for?’
Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said it is now time for the scandal-hit BBC to appoint an internal watchdog.
President Trump said he planned to call Sir Keir (pictured) this weekend and talk to him about the issue, adding that the Prime Minister was ‘very embarrassed’ by the incident
Mr Trump is expected to launch his lawsuit in Florida. The Panorama film which contained the edit appearing to show him inciting Capitol Hill protesters to violence on January 6, 2021, was not available in the US, but experts believe the case could still come before a jury, which is likely to be sympathetic to the President.
BBC chairman Samir Shah last week sent a personal letter to the White House to apologise for the editing, which has not been enough to satisfy the President.
Speaking on Air Force One on Friday, Mr Trump said of his legal action: ‘I think I have to do it. They’ve even admitted that they cheated… They changed the words coming out of my mouth.’
‘The people of the UK are very angry about what happened as you can imagine because it shows the BBC is fake news.’
In a separate interview on GB News on Friday night, Mr Trump claimed he had an ‘obligation’ to sue the BBC, which he branded ‘corrupt’ and ‘beyond fake’. ‘This was so egregious. If you don’t do it, you don’t stop it from happening again with other people. I’d like to find out why they did it.’
Sam Nunberg, a former Trump campaign official, today said he believed the President had ‘a pretty solid case’ and that the BBC’s lawyers would probably be unable to persuade a judge to throw the claim out of court and could face a settlement of millions.
‘I think the BBC should be taking this extremely seriously. I think [a settlement] would be high seven figures. It’s a large amount of money.’
In July, US media giant Paramount agreed to pay Mr Trump $16 million (£13.5 million) to settle a lawsuit over an interview on CBS with former Vice-President Kamala Harris, which he said was edited too sympathetically.
But speaking to The Mail on Sunday, Lord Patten, a former chairman of the BBC, said: ‘The BBC board should tell Donald Trump they will see him in court. The BBC is part of our democracy, and an important part.
‘I am not in favour of kowtowing to Trump about this absurd charge.’
The BBC has apologised but declined to pay him damages, setting the scene for a high-profile legal showdown
Sir Craig Oliver, a former BBC executive and director of communications for Prime Minister David Cameron, said the corporation faced a ‘nightmare situation… It does clearly believe that it’s got a strong case but really the problem is that public money could be spent – or is going to be spent – fighting this or settling this.’
Former Tory Culture Secretary Sir John Whittingdale added: ‘It would be highly undesirable to have the BBC having to defend what was clearly a very serious failing of editorial judgment in an American court. It is not exactly going to help improve our relations with our closest ally.’
Writing in today’s Sunday Times, Mr Sunak said: ‘The BBC has too often misjudged the nation’s mood, mishandled its people and mismanaged its own processes.
‘One of the actions that the BBC should take now is to appoint an internal watchdog responsible for spotting problems and addressing them before they have turned into a scandal.
‘It cannot continue to sit back and wait for others to highlight its mistakes, and then ponder whether to react before comforting itself that any criticism must be driven by base political motives.’
A BBC spokesman said: ‘While the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video was edited, we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim.’
