‘Emily Maitlis is not to everyone’s taste’: How BBC bosses tried to throw host under the bus after Tory debate fiasco
- A BBC statement which appeared to criticise Emily Maitlis appeared last night
- It was swiftly removed as BBC bosses insisted it had been ‘published in error’
- Maitlis had faced criticism from viewers over her handling of Tory candidates
By Tim Stickings For Mailonline
Published: 14:15 EDT, 26 June 2019 | Updated: 20:20 EDT, 26 June 2019
The BBC was forced into swift retreat last night after criticising its own broadcaster Emily Maitlis.
A statement appeared on the BBC website saying that the Newsnight presenter was ‘not to everyone’s taste’.
But the BBC quickly removed the comment, insisting it was a mistake.
‘An earlier draft of this response was published in error. Emily’s a superb broadcaster’, a spokesman said.
The BBC last night appeared to accidentally criticise its own presenter Emily Maitlis (pictured during last week’s Tory leadership debate)
The errant comment was a response to complaints about Maitlis’s performance in last week’s Conservative leadership debate.
Some viewers felt she had ‘failed to control’ the hustings between five Tory candidates.
One critic said the show turned into ‘an hour of men shouting inanely over each other’, while another said the BBC’s bar-stool format made the Tory MPs look like ‘a bunch of braying morons’.
In an updated message, the BBC defended Maitlis and said the presenter’s role had been to ‘seek clarification and direct answers’.
‘The programme itself wasn’t styled on a typical debate programme, rather a hustings for the candidates and to give the audience a chance to get to know the candidates better,’ a BBC spokesman said.
‘However Emily ensured that all of the candidates were given the chance to answer the questions and put their views across.’
Some viewers felt Maitlis (left) had ‘failed to control’ the hustings between five Tory candidates (from second left, Boris Johnson, Jeremy Hunt, Michael Gove, Sajid Javid and Rory Stewart)
‘We highly regard Emily as one of our regular presenters, she is extremely experienced and well versed with dealing with politicians.
‘We consider that she did a good job during this programme.’
The BBC has already faced one storm over the June 18 programme, after it emerged that an imam who questioned the Tory candidates had sent anti-Semitic tweets.
Abdullah Patel asked the five men about Islamophobia, but had previously written about a ‘Zionist payroll’ and suggested Israel should be relocated to America.
After the row erupted Mr Patel was suspended from all duties at the primary school where he is deputy head.
Rob Burley, who edited the programme, said Mr Patel’s Twitter account had been deactivated ahead of his appearance on the BBC debate – meaning his tweets could not be read.
A series of vile posts by Abdullah Patel were unearthed moments after the BBC debate he took part in ended
BBC Radio 5 Live presenter Nicky Campbell said the imam had made ‘extremely disturbing’ comments and said he was ‘sorry’ that the BBC had not found them.
During the debate, Mr Patel had asked the five candidates whether they believed words had consequences.
Boris Johnson said he was ‘sorry for the offence’ his comments about veiled Muslim women looking like ‘letter boxes’ and ‘bank robbers’ had caused.
Mr Johnson also said he believed his Muslim great grandfather would have been ‘very proud’ to have seen him become foreign secretary.
However at one point he appeared to forget Mr Patel’s name, referring to him as ‘my friend over there’, before presenter Maitlis interjected: ‘Abdullah’.
The row then deepened after it emerged that another of the questioners was a former Labour candidate.
Aman Thakar flew the Labour flag in Borough and Bankside in the Southwark local election last year.
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