Senior Tory says she feels sorry for Huw Edwards after he quit BBC
The chairman of the culture, media and sport committee has said she feels “very sorry” for Huw Edwards and his family after the BBC newsreader resigned from the corporation earlier this week.
His resignation, “on the basis of medical advice from his doctors”, followed allegations that he paid a young person for sexually explicit photos.
Edwards was suspended by the corporation after the allegations came to light, but the Metropolitan Police later said that no criminal offence had taken place.
Speaking about how the BBC had handled the allegations, Dame Caroline Dinenage told the Voice of the Listener & Viewer spring conference on Wednesday: “The BBC are in a really difficult position over things like this, because at the point that the allegations were made last summer, it was unclear as to exactly who was making the allegations and exactly what they were.
“It turns out now, of course, that the way Huw Edwards was conducting himself was outside of work time, on his own equipment, and it was a consensual activity with someone who was of age, so actually nothing, as much as it may be distasteful to some, it was nothing illegal happened and he’s entitled to a private life.
“I feel very sorry for him, and I feel particularly sorry for his family.
“Whether there’s anything more that the BBC could have done to have changed that, I don’t know. But it’s horrible. It feels fundamentally wrong that someone’s whole life has been damaged irreparably by something like that.”
Edwards, 62, had been absent from screens since the story first broke, and his wife said in July that he was receiving in-patient hospital care and suffering “serious mental health issues”.
The family of the unnamed young person originally complained to the BBC about Edwards in May 2023. Edwards was publicly named by his wife as the BBC presenter at the centre of the allegations in July.
He was the BBC’s highest-paid newsreader, with a pay bracket of between £435,000 and £439,999 in the year 2022-2023, according to the corporation’s most recent annual report.
Edwards regularly covered major political and royal events, and announced Queen Elizabeth II’s death on the BBC.
Dame Caroline was also asked what the committee would do to hold the Government to account over alleged interference in key appointments.
It comes after Nadine Dorries alleged in her recent book that BBC board member Sir Robbie Gibb, a former press secretary for Theresa May, lobbied her when she was culture secretary to appoint Lord Gilbert to the role of head of Ofcom.
It was also previously reported that Sir Robbie “lectured” Newsnight staff on how to be more impartial.
Dame Caroline said: “There’s obviously been a lot of discussion ... and a lot of concern around this in recent years.”
She said she was “concerned” over the appointment of the Ofcom chairman as she said the process went on for a “really long time” and “it did feel like there was some sort of political interference going on there”.
She added: “We know that people have political viewpoints. I don’t have a problem with Robbie Gibb being on the board of the BBC, I don’t have a problem with that, and he says he’d never tried to interfere with Newsnight – so different reports of what happened.
“But I just feel that everybody needs to do their very best in a world where people are just so concerned about whether there is political aspects to these organisations. We have to go above and beyond to try and demonstrate that they are as independent as possible.”