Emily Maitlis has said she was replaced as host of Newsnight on Wednesday because she asked to take the night off, shortly after being found to have breached the BBC’s impartiality guidelines by delivering a monologue criticising Dominic Cummings.
Newsnight’s lead presenter stood aside after a testing day for the show in the wake of Maitlis telling viewers on Tuesday night that “Dominic Cummings broke the rules – the country can see that and it’s shocked the government cannot”.
The vast majority of staff working on the programme are said to be firmly behind Maitlis and the editor, Esme Wren, and furious at the decision by BBC management to censure the presenter and programme.
In a tweet at 2.30am on Thursday, Maitlis said she was grateful to Newsnight’s UK editor, Katie Razzall, “my friend and excellent colleague”, for stepping in as host at short notice. “She did so because I asked for the night off – knowing tonight’s [programme] would be in the most excellent hands,” she wrote.
Maitlis had told viewers she would be presenting again on Wednesday night and was listed as the host in programme guides, leading to surprise when she was replaced. She later responded to people sending messages of support: “Been overwhelmed by all the kindness, messages – and support on here – and I’ve probably missed much of it. A big thank you from us all at Newsnight.”
Newsnight’s policy editor, Lewis Goodall, said he “couldn’t be prouder” to work on the programme alongside the “world-class” Maitlis.
So much to say but best to leave it for now given, for obvious reasons, certain people want nothing more than to have a debate about the media. Instead, will just say I couldn’t be prouder to work on @BBCNewsnight, a world class programme with a world class presenter @maitlis.
— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) May 27, 2020
The row is another headache for the BBC, which has struggled to enforce its editorial standards codes in the social media era. Increasingly it has found itself forced to apologise by one side of the political debate for an on-air alleged error of judgment, only to be criticised again by the other side for apologising.
Although the BBC has enjoyed a brief respite in recent months, Downing Street’s pushback against the media over the Cummings incident suggests normal service is being resumed.
Maitlis’s monologue regarding Cummings attracted substantial attention on social media. Summarising the state of the story at the start of the programme, she said: “The longer ministers and the prime minister insist he worked within [the guidelines], the more likely the angry response to the scandal is likely to be … He made those who struggled to keep to the rules feel like fools, and has allowed many more to assume they can flout them.”
Talking of Johnson’s “blind loyalty” in the face of plummeting poll ratings, she expressed bafflement over his loyalty to Cummings in the face of enormous public anger. “The prime minister knows all this and has chosen to ignore it,” she said.
The BBC said that while the programme “contained fair, reasonable and rigorous journalism”, it should have done more “to make clear the introduction was a summary of the questions we would examine, with all the accompanying evidence, in the rest of the programme”.