Sir Keir Starmer is set to speak with Donald Trump this weekend.
The two leaders are set to have a call this weekend (Image: Getty)
Sir Keir Starmer is expected to use a weekend call with Donald Trump to stress that the BBC, while a respected British institution, must uphold the highest standards and correct errors swiftly. This call comes amid Trump’s plans to sue the BBC for up to £3.8 billion after it edited one of his speeches to make it appear he incited the January 6 Capitol riot. The US President told reporters on board Air Force One on Friday evening that he’d sue “anywhere between $1bn and $5bn, probably sometime next week.”
Mr Trump indicated he intends to pursue legal action against the corporation. (Image: Getty)
He said: “I think I have to do it. They’ve even admitted that they cheated. They changed the words coming out of my mouth. The people of the UK are very angry about what happened, as you can imagine, because it shows the BBC is fake news.”
This weekend, Sir Keir Starmer is set to tell the US President that the BBC must “get its house in order,” The Telegraph reported. Trump reportedly said that Starmer was “very embarrassed” about the scandal.
Former director-general Tim Davie and head of BBC News Deborah Turness resigned after the editing scandal, marking a serious crisis for the public broadcaster.
The dispute appears to have further escalated this evening after it was announced that Rutger Bregman is BBC Radio 4’s Reith lecturer for 2025.
This evening, the White House called Mr Bregman “a rabid anti-Trump individual,” criticising his lectures for their outspoken criticism of the US president, the Daily Mail reported.
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung told The Mail on Sunday tonight: “The BBC has been caught red-handed doctoring President Trump’s remarks on multiple occasions, so it’s no surprise that they have commissioned a rabid anti-Trump individual to deliver a lecture.”
The Reith Lectures will air on Radio 4 from November 25. The BBC stressed that the views expressed are those of the speakers, not the corporation and that these views are “discussed and challenged after the lecture.”
The author has published four books on history, philosophy, and economics, including Utopia for Realists: How We Can Build the Ideal World, which has been translated into 32 languages.
The four lectures: A Time of Monsters, How to Start a Moral Revolution, A Realist’s Utopia, and Zoom Out, will be recorded in London, Liverpool, Edinburgh, and the US, and later broadcast on Radio 4 and the World Service.
