Sir Keir Starmer has still yet to speak to Donald Trump despite the US President’s threat to sue the BBC for billions of dollars, Downing Street admitted today.
No10 said the Prime Minister was yet to hold talks with Mr Trump more than a week on from his threat to leave TV licence fee-payers with a huge bill.
In a letter to BBC chairman Samir Shah on 9 November, Mr Trump’s lawyers vowed to sue the BBC for $1billion over the editing of one of his speeches in a Panorama programme.
The US President later said he would sue the BBC for ‘anywhere between $1billion and $5billion’.
It had been expected Sir Keir would speak with Mr Trump this weekend in their first talks since the furious row erupted.
But Downing Street on Monday morning admitted the PM and US President had yet to speak.
Asked about Mr Trump’s threat to seek as much as $5billion from the broadcaster, the PM’s official spokesman told reporters: ‘We have been very clear that this is a matter for the BBC, whose laywers are now dealing with this.
‘We’re not going to comment on an ongoing legal matter. The BBC is independent of the UK Government – it’s a matter for them and the US administration.’
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: ‘After a year of sucking up, the PM can’t even get Donald Trump on the phone as he tries to destroy one of our most important institutions, the BBC. Was the state visit really worth this?’
It came as Mr Shah used an email to BBC staff to insist there was ‘no basis’ to Mr Trump’s legal case and vowed to ‘fight’ the US President’s action.
Sir Keir Starmer has still yet to speak to Donald Trump despite the US President’s threat to sue the BBC for billions of dollars, Downing Street admitted today
No10 said the Prime Minister was yet to hold talks with Mr Trump more than a week on from his threat to leave TV licence fee-payers with a huge bill
Mr Shah said in the email: ‘There is a lot being written, said and speculated upon about the possibility of legal action, including potential costs or settlements.
‘In all this we are, of course, acutely aware of the privilege of our funding and the need to protect our licence fee payers, the British public.
‘I want to be very clear with you – our position has not changed. There is no basis for a defamation case and we are determined to fight this.’
On Friday, Mr Trump told reporters on board Air Force One he would sue the BBC for ‘anywhere between $1billion and $5billion, probably sometime next week’.
His comments followed an apology from the BBC on Thursday in which it said the edit of Mr Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021 had given the ‘mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action’.
The broadcaster apologised and said the splicing of the speech was an ‘error of judgment’.
But the BBC refused to pay financial compensation after the US President’s lawyers threatened to sue for $1billion in damages unless a retraction and apology were published.
On Saturday, a BBC spokesperson said: ‘We have had no further contact from President Trump’s lawyers at this point. Our position remains the same.’
In an interview with GB News broadcast on Saturday, Mr Trump said he had an ‘obligation’ to sue the BBC, adding: ‘This was so egregious. If you don’t do it, you don’t stop it from happening again with other people.’
Mr Trump also said the lawsuit would be likely to be filed ‘someplace in the US’.
On Thursday, Mr Shah sent a personal letter to the White House to apologise for the editing, and lawyers for the corporation wrote to the President’s legal team, a BBC spokesperson said.
The spokesperson added: ‘While the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited, we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim.’
Mr Trump has a history of suing news organisations in the US, and settled a legal dispute with CBS News over an interview it broadcast on its 60 Minutes programme with former vice president Kamala Harris.
The Panorama scandal saw the resignations of two of the BBC’s most senior executives: director-general Tim Davie and news chief Deborah Turness.
The programme, broadcast a week before the 2024 US election results, spliced two clips together so that Mr Trump appeared to tell the crowd: ‘We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.’
The BBC has said it will not air the Panorama episode Trump: A Second Chance? again, and published a retraction on the show’s webpage on Thursday.
BBC News reported on Saturday that the broadcaster had set out five main arguments in its letter to Mr Trump’s legal team as to why it did not believe there was a basis for a defamation claim.
It said the BBC did not distribute the Panorama episode on its US channels and it was restricted on iPlayer to viewers in the UK; that the documentary did not cause Mr Trump harm as he was later re-elected; that the edit was not done with malice and was designed to shorten a long speech; that it was not meant to be considered in isolation but as part of an hour-long programme; and that an opinion on a matter of public concern and political speech is heavily protected under defamation laws in the US.
Addressing staff earlier in the week, Mr Davie, who will remain in the position until a successor is appointed, said: ‘We have to be very clear and stand up for our journalism.
‘We are a unique and precious organisation, and I see the free press under pressure, I see the weaponisation.
‘I think we’ve got to fight for our journalism. I’m really proud of our work, and the amazing work locally, globally, that we’re doing is utterly precious.’
The process to appoint his successor is under way, the BBC said.
Additionally, Mr Shah has started a review into the EGSC (Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee), with a ‘focus on improving its processes and the way that it works’, the corporation added.
