LAST UPDATE | 9 Nov

BBC DIRECTOR GENERAL Tim Davie and its CEO of News Deborah Turness have resigned from their positions at the national broadcaster over criticism of edits made to a speech made by US President Donald Trump.

Their resignations follow the publication of details of a BBC internal memo in The Telegraph today that suggested the edits made to Trump’s speech – which was included in a BBC Panorama documentary – made it appear that Trump had encouraged the storming of Capitol Hill on 6 January 2021 after losing the US election to Joe Biden.

It is claimed that the BBC had spliced together two parts of Trump’s speech in a misleading manner. The broadcaster is expected to apologise for the incident tomorrow.

In a statement carried by the BBC, Davie said “overall the BBC is delivering well, but there have been some mistakes made and as Director-General I have to take ultimate responsibility”.

He said: “I wanted to let you know that I have decided to leave the BBC after 20 years. This is entirely my decision, and I remain very thankful to the Chair and Board for their unswerving and unanimous support throughout my entire tenure, including during recent days.

“I am working through exact timings with the Board to allow for an orderly transition to a successor over the coming months.”

Turness said she had offered her resignation to Davie yesterday.

She said “the ongoing controversy around the Panorama on President Trump has reached a stage where it is causing damage to the BBC – an institution that I love”, and added that “the buck stops with me”.

“While mistakes have been made, I want to be absolutely clear recent allegations that BBC News is institutionally biased are wrong.”

Shot: Chaser: pic.twitter.com/n0U08PnUJb

— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) November 9, 2025

While Trump has yet to respond personally to the news, his 28-year-old press secretary Karoline Leavitt posted a screenshot of two news headlines: one proclaiming Trump was going “to war” with the BBC over the issue, and the second announcing today’s resignations.

“Shot”, Leavitt labelled the first headline, and “Chaser” the second.