BBC board member QUITS and blasts 'governance issues' at corporation amid Donald Trump's $1billion legal threat

The fallout continues after the BBC apologised for the edit of President Donald Trump’s speech on January 6 2021, which had given the "mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action."

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.

Mr Banerji is the founder of Condorcet, an advisory and investment firm focused on early and development stage technology companies.

A BBC spokesman told GB News: "Shumeet Banerji today notified the BBC Board of his resignation.

"Mr Banerji’s term on the Board as a non-executive director was due to end at the end of December and we thank him for his service.

"The search for a replacement is already well under way and we will update further in due course."

According to the BBC website, Mr Banerji was responsible for "upholding and protecting the independence of the BBC by acting in the public interest and exercising independent judgement."

He was also responsible "for ensuring that the BBC fulfils its mission to inform, educate and entertain and promotes its public purposes."

The BBC website said: "Non-executive directors play a key role in ensuring that the BBC maintains the highest standards of corporate governance, particularly with respect to financial reporting, internal control and risk management."

Mr Banerji started his tenure on January 7, 2022 and will finish on December 31 after announcing his resignation.

BBC chairman Samir Shah last week 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 spokesperson for the broadcaster said.

BBC News reported 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.

The Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: "I have not directly spoken to him about the BBC. I think he was going to phone me at the weekend but that call didn’t happen but we regularly have contact.

"I speak to him fairly regularly as you know, (we) have an excellent relationship."

Sir Keir also said any editorial failings should be addressed "quickly", but added: "The principle of an independent trusted BBC is really important and should be defended.

“"So where (there are) editorial failings, yes of course that has to be addressed as you would expect and as soon as possible, with explanation.

"But the principle of a trusted independent BBC media is really important – we have to defend it."