Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said he has not yet spoken to US President Donald Trump about the row surrounding how the BBC’s Panorama programme edited of one of his speeches.
Trump said last week that he would sue the corporation, which has apologised for the way two sections of Trump’s speech on 6 January 2021 were edited together.
He also said he would speak to the prime minister about the issue. On Friday, Sir Keir said he had “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,” the prime minister said.
“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”, and that he believes “the principle of an independent trusted BBC is really important and should be defended”.
The BBC’s apology to the president said the Panorama episode had given the “mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action”.
Trump has said he plans to sue the corporation for “anywhere between $1bn (£759.8m) and $5bn (£3.8bn)”, but has not yet filed court papers.
On Thursday, the US broadcast regulator chief wrote to the BBC to determine whether the corporation had provided the edited speech to any US TV channels.
The BBC has previously stated it did not have the rights to, and did not, distribute the Panorama episode on its US channels.
The Telegraph also reported on Friday that one of Donald Trump’s libel lawyers met Downing Street officials days after the US president threatened to sue the BBC.
Robert Garson said his trip had nothing to do with the proposed lawsuit, but that they “may have spoken about antisemitism at the BBC”.
