'Troubling' messages showing No 10 pressure on BBC need investigating, say former staff

Former BBC staffers have expressed concerns about the leaked WhatsApp and email messages suggesting the corporation bowed to pressure from No 10 to avoid using the word “lockdown” at the start of the pandemic and to turn up criticism of Labour.Rob Burley, a former senior editor in charge of political programmes, described the messages as “very troubling” while veteran BBC journalist John Simpson stressed that it was “not our job to do Downing Street’s bidding”.The messages revealed by the Guardian on Tuesday date from 2020 to 2022, and show the BBC coming under pressure from No 10 over the corporation’s political reporting.One email shows a senior editor informing correspondents that Downing Street was requesting them not to use the word “lockdown” in relation to the shutdown ordered by Boris Johnson on 23 March 2020 – the day the first lockdown was announced.Another WhatsApp message asked correspondents to “turn up the scepticism a bit” towards Labour after a complaint from Downing Street that the corporation was not reflecting the “mess” of the opposition’s call for plan B Covid measures.Burley said the messages were “very troubling evidence of the way that BBC executives operate in relation to government and how they put
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