Ex-BBC board member criticised chair's handling of bias crisis in resignation letter

With BBC News, a former BBC board member who resigned last week has shared his resignation letter, shedding fresh light on the incidents that led to the corporation's director general and CEO of news's departures. Shumeet Banerjire resigned on Friday, citing governance issues as the reason for the decision, but the full reason

She did not have the confidence of a majority of the board,

news boss Deborah Turness was told in his derogatory letter. Banerji wrote, however, he was "not invited to any meeting where a matter of such importance was to be discussed.

The letter's contents appeared a day after Samir Shah, the corporation's chair, told a select committee of MPs that he had advised Banerji and that the two had had a

26 minute call. Banerji told BBC News on Tuesday that he had followed the discussion in the committee with an interest.

My resignation letter will help clarify my reasons for resigning,

he said. It may also help to clarify misconceptions that may have arisen among committee members and viewers.

Davie and Turness resigned as a result of a Panorama episode that edited together portions of t a 2021 speech by US President Donald Trump's 2021 address. It was triggered by a leaked memo sent by Michael Prescott, a former external advisor, sparking the change. Since then, questions have been raised in several quarters about how the BBC board functions. The board is responsible for the corporation's control and planning. Banerji wrote in his letter:

I will not be interested in a board decision on which I was not informed and no one that has in my opinion has had adequate discussion.

When Shah was confronted specifically by MPs about Banerji's resignation on Monday, he denied his assertion that he had not been informed of the events leading to the departures of Turness and Davie.

I am both angry and surprised by what he has to say,

Shah told the committee: "If I were consulted.

Banerji's resignation letter gives a different view of events. After the Prescott memo leaked, two board meetings were held to address the company's crisis, according to him. He had been unable to attend the first meeting, but Turness had already been told that

she did not have the confidence of a majority of the board.

I was not invited to any meeting where a topic of such importance was to be discussed,he said.Nor has your company been asked for an urgent need to discuss where we are. Yesterday, I had arranged a phone call with you. "You may have talked to each director and asked for ayes and nays, but the reason there are boards is to have reasoned discussions on important topics. This has not happened.

Davie's resignation as a result of the board's lack of confidence in his head of news as

a direct assault on himself as the editor-in-chief and CEO,

he said. In the white heat of press expulsion, the board had responded in the white hot of press euphoriation, he said, adding:

The BBC's detractors' lessons are leak and launch. Will the departures of two of our most senior, respected, and loved executives make the BBC more valuable? Somehow, I doubt it very much.

The full letter's release adds to the heat on Shah, after culture committee chair Caroline Dinenage inquired if the BBC was in safe hands under his leadership on Monday.

Banerji's letter provides more insight into what was going on behind the scenes as the tragedy unfolded. Board members were at pains to appear in the committee's meeting, but this letter portrays a different image. It also helps explain why one board member Caroline Thomson called it a

continuing and sharp divergence of opinion. Following the Telegraph's first reporting on the leaked memo, BBC News had already reported that the board had blocked Turness and the news division from apologizing for the Donald Trump edit. In his appearance before the committee on Monday, Shah told MPs that the apology

took its timebecauseI wanted to make sure that what I was apologizing for was completely correct and absolutely correct. According to Banerji, the board made Turness' position untenable. One insider to the process told me she had already resigned because she didn't have faith in the board and viewed them as a "circular firing squad. The crisis had risen beyond recovery, and the insider said it was the right thing to do.

Banerji, a non-executive board member since 2022, is the founder of a technology-based consultancy and brokerage firm. He was formerly president of Booz & Company, a management consulting company. The BBC's 12-member board is charged with ensuring that it follows its public service mission and that it steers the corporation's strategic direction, which is mainly funded by licence-fee payers. The BBC's executive committee is held accountable by non-executive members. Shah, a former documentary maker, chairs the board.