Gaza: BBC Coverage

Baroness Foster of Oxton Excerpts

Tuesday 4th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Katz (Lab)]

My Lords—

[Baroness Foster of Oxton (Con)]

My Lords—

[Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms and Chief Whip (Lord Kennedy of Southwark) (Lab Co-op)]

We will hear from my noble friend Lord Katz next, and then the noble Baroness, Lady Foster.

[Baroness Twycross (Lab)]

My noble friend makes a really important point. I go back to the point about needing clarity on whether the issues in this instance, and wider issues, are a failure of governance, whether the guidelines are strong enough and rigorously enforced, or whether the oversight itself is an issue.

[Baroness Foster of Oxton (Con)]

I listened very carefully to the Select Committee discussion this morning with the BBC on the showing of the appalling documentary on Gaza. According to Tim Davie, apparently, the board is now very exercised—it appears to have taken it about 18 months to be exercised about anything. In August 2024, over 200 members of the film and television industry signed a letter calling for an investigation into problems of systemic anti-Semitism and bias at the BBC. This follows a series of editorial failures and the employment of individuals who have openly glorified terrorism, particularly since the 7 October attack. Given these deeply troubling happenings, will the Minister support an independent inquiry, as my noble friend on the Front Bench asked for, into anti-Semitism and bias at the BBC?

[Baroness Twycross (Lab)]

I should like to be clear that there is absolutely no place for and should be no tolerance of anti-Semitism, whether in the BBC or elsewhere in society: it is a stain on our country. On the documentary, I think it right that in the first instance, the BBC is conducting a thorough investigation into what happened and who knew what, when. I am not detracting from previous incidents the noble Baroness referred to, and when the Secretary of State says and I stand here saying that no stone should be left unturned, no stone should be left unturned in addressing this issue.