BBC News Anchor Clive Myrie Made Thousands Delivering Speeches To Investment Firm With Stakes In Israeli Weapons Suppliers

Jake Kanter

13 June 2024 at 8:29 am·6-min read

EXCLUSIVE: Clive Myrie, one of the BBC’s most senior news anchors, has been criticized after making thousands of pounds delivering speeches to an investment company linked to Israeli arms suppliers.

Myrie is a household name in the UK and will be the face of the BBC’s election night coverage next month after being elevated into a more prominent role following the resignation of Huw Edwards in April.

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The presenter supplements his £290,000 ($370,000) BBC salary with external speaking engagements and he was paid up to £10,000 ($13,000) by Quilter Cheviot, one of the UK’s largest asset managers, to present at a series of adviser roadshow events earlier this year. The events came after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, sparking months of retaliatory assaults.

Myrie delivered an address on “politics, performance and planning” for Quilter Cheviot on at least three occasions in February, March, and May. He declared the contract in the BBC’s external events register, which the corporation publishes every three months.

An analysis by Deadline has revealed that Quilter Cheviot has stakes in two arms manufacturers with known connections to the Israeli military: RTX, the U.S. defense giant formerly known as Raytheon Technologies, and Britain’s BAE Systems.

RTX trumpets its role in supplying assets to Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, but has also been accused of manufacturing weapons used against Palestinian civilians. The American Friends Service Committee, a U.S. Quaker group that monitors the human rights credentials of listed companies, recommends divesting from RTX because of Israel’s use of its GBU-28 “bunker buster” and laser-guided Paveway bombs in Gaza.

Meanwhile, the Campaign Against Arms Trade detailed last November how BAE Systems is the biggest UK supplier of components for F-35 fighter jets, which Israel said it has used to target Hamas militants during strikes on Gaza. BAE Systems said it complies carefully with all relevant defense export controls.

Amnesty International and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign said Myrie’s work for Quilter raised questions about his judgment and put the BBC’s impartiality at risk. The Israel-Gaza crisis has been a complex story for the BBC to navigate, with the British broadcaster being accused of bias by all sides.

Myrie did not respond to a request for comment. The BBC is said to be comfortable with presenters earning extra-curricular cash from investment firms exposed to controversial industries, with insiders arguing that it does not pose a risk to impartiality. Quilter has also held investments in companies including British American Tobacco and Exxon Mobil.

A BBC spokesperson said the corporation is the most trusted news source in the UK, adding: “We publish the external paid-for work of on-air journalists for transparency and every event is approved in line with our editorial guidelines.” The editorial rules state that speaking engagements should not “compromise the authority, impartiality or integrity of presenters.”

Deadline understands that Quilter’s investments in RTX and BAE Systems are small, representing 0.004% (£1.1M) and under 0.15% (£37.6M) of the £28.1B in assets it has under management. Despite the size of its investments, Quilter has attempted to wield influence at RTX, voting in favor of shareholder proposals to strengthen governance procedures and climate change reporting at the defense contractor.

A Quilter spokesperson said: “We invest in a wide range of companies across a number of different sectors on behalf of our clients. We take the stewardship of our clients’ assets very seriously and engage regularly with the companies we invest in on their behalf. Should any clients want to avoid investing in any companies associated with the Middle East conflict, we exclude these firms from their portfolios.

“We automatically exclude defence companies from the sustainable and ethical investment funds that we manage and as such neither of these companies [RTX and BAE Systems] are held by investors who have a preference for this style of investing.”

Myrie Not Alone

Myrie is not the only BBC presenter to have delivered a public address to an asset management company exposed to arms suppliers.

Naga Munchetty was engaged by PIMCO in October 2022, supplementing her £340,000 salary with a paycheck worth up to £10,000. Deadline can reveal that PIMCO is invested in Honeywell, which has links to Israeli munitions. Al Jazeera found evidence this month of Honeywell parts being used in a bomb that hit the UN’s al-Sardi school in Gaza.

Munchetty, who hosts BBC Breakfast and a Radio 5 Live show, did not respond to a request for comment. PIMCO declined to comment.

Kristyan Benedict, Amnesty International UK’s crisis response manager, said: “Anyone accepting lucrative speaking engagements from fund managers should do basic due diligence on whether these funds are invested in arms companies supplying weapons to the Israeli military.

“Very few people would think it right to accept money which linked them to investments in a Russian state arms company given Russia’s war crimes and occupation and annexation of Ukrainian territory, and nor should they do so when it comes to Israel.”

Palestine Solidarity Campaign director Ben Jamal added: “It is deeply concerning that top BBC presenters, who should be holding the powerful to account, are conducting lucrative speaking gigs for financial institutions profiting from the production of weaponry used in Israel’s devastating attacks on Palestinians.”

He added that the BBC must not allow high-profile staff to “endorse companies” that are “complicit” in Israel’s actions in Gaza. Sources at the BBC and Quilter said Myrie’s speaking arrangement did not represent an endorsement of the asset manager’s investment strategies.

RTX and Honeywell did not respond to requests for comment about their connections to the Israeli military. A BAE Systems spokesperson said: “The situation in Israel and Gaza is having a devastating impact on civilians in the region and we hope it can be resolved as soon as possible … We operate under the tightest regulation and comply fully with all applicable defence export controls, which are subject to ongoing assessment.”

Other BBC presenters have spoken for investment firms with stakes in fossil fuel companies. Deadline’s findings come amid controversy about major British literary festivals, including the Hay Festival, being sponsored by Baillie Gifford, which has interests in oil companies including Petrobras. Fossil Free Books successfully lobbied authors to pull out of Baillie Gifford-backed festivals and Hay ultimately dropped the sponsor.

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