BBC failed to defend me during Tory witch-hunt, says Lewis Goodall | BBC

Lewis Goodall, former editor of politics at Newsnight and now presenter of the hit podcast The News Agents, has claimed his BBC bosses failed to “respond sufficiently” when his reporting was criticised by a former Tory communications chief, Robbie Gibb.

“It was McCarthyism,” he says, suggesting in a candid new interview in the Observer Magazine He said he was briefly the target of a Tory witch hunt – an uncomfortable period that intensified when Gibb joined the BBC board. “People at the top of the BBC didn’t seem resilient enough.”

He added: “I’ve had a few experiences where editors have told me to ‘watch out: Robbie is watching me.’ It was inappropriate for a board member, who is not supposed to be involved in the editorial department, to interfere in the editorial department.”

Goodall, 35, who presents The News Agents alongside Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel, also suggests the incident partly motivated her decision to leave the corporation. “I was disheartened. The BBC didn’t fight for me to stay when I was thinking about leaving. I got the message.”

The row between the Oxford graduate raised in council housing and Gibb – a former BBC news chief who was Theresa May’s communications expert at 10 Downing Street – first erupted publicly on Twitter in 2020 when Gibb suggested Goodall was biased.

Goodall replied sarcastically: “Thanks for that, Robbie. Maybe one day, if I’m as impartial as you, I too can be knighted.” Gibb’s next tweet clarified his position: “Is there anyone more damaging to the BBC’s reputation for impartiality than @lewis_goodall?”

Gibb was appointed to the BBC board in May 2021, despite widespread criticism of his obvious political connections. Goodall shares the concern about Gibb’s oversight role, but says he would have had similar concerns about an explicit Labour Party appointment to the board.

Although Goodall admits to making mistakes when he started at the BBC and was “young and hungry,” he maintains that his views have not impacted his work. “There’s a difference between being impartial and acting impartially,” he says. “Nobody is totally impartial. Nick Robinson was a Tory activist.” Robinson and Andrew Neil, a well-known right-winger, are both journalists he “respects enormously,” he adds.

Gibb and the BBC have been contacted for comment.