David Yelland says Tim Davie and Deborah Turness were undermined by people close to BBC board
BBC director general resigns – latest updates
The resignations of the BBC’s director general and its head of news over claims of bias were “a coup” orchestrated from the inside, a former newspaper editor has claimed.
David Yelland, who edited the Sun from 1998 to 2003, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday that the departures of Tim Davie and Deborah Turness followed the systematic undermining of them by people close to the BBC board over a lengthy period.
“It was a coup, and worse than that, it was an inside job. There were people inside the BBC, very close to the board … on the board, who have systematically undermined Tim Davie and his senior team over a period of [time] and this has been going on for a long time. What happened yesterday didn’t just happen in isolation,” Yelland, who also co-presents the BBC podcast When it Hits the Fan, said.
