BBC apologises for failure to scrutinise Nadine Dorries’ claims about Sue Gray

The BBC has apologised for the failure to properly scrutinise claims made by Nadine Dorries on a radio show, capping a day of controversies for the corporation.

The broadcaster said in a statement on Friday that “there should have been more challenge” when the former culture secretary and Boris Johnson loyalist made allegations about Sue Gray on Radio 4’s World at One.

Dorries had suggested that the report by the former civil servant on lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street during Johnson’s premiership was discredited after her decision to become chief of staff for the Labour leader, Keir Starmer.

She described the ex-mandarin as a “personal friend of Keir Starmer, someone who has been in discussion over who knows what period of time … about taking the role as his chief of staff, with the primary objective of taking down the Tory government”.

The former cabinet minister went on to allege that there may have been political motivations in the findings Gray reached over the lockdown investigation.

The comments went unchallenged, but Starmer clarified in an interview with LBC that Gray was “not a friend” and is “not in the same social circles” as him.

In a statement on Friday, the BBC said it had received complaints from listeners who felt Dorries was allowed to make “inaccurate and biased” claims.

It said: “Nadine Dorries was the first and only cabinet minister and Boris Johnson loyalist to have given an interview about Sue Gray’s appointment, and the programme was keen to press her on her reaction as well as what the appointment meant for the work of the privileges committee. In hindsight, we agree that there should have been more challenge to Dorries’ claims.”

It added that the show’s full sequence included comments made by crossbench peer Lord Kerslake, who questioned whether Gray and Starmer were friends and defended Gray’s integrity as a senior civil servant.

But the corporation acknowledged that his remarks had not been heard directly after Dorries’, which may have left some listeners thinking her claims were uncontested.

The controversy comes on a tumultuous day for the BBC, with rows breaking out over Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker, Question Time presenter Fiona Bruce and the broadcasting of a show by Sir David Attenborough.

The corporation was on Friday forced to defend Bruce against accusations that she trivialised domestic abuse during a discussion about Stanley Johnson.

The presenter had interrupted while a panel member was describing the father of Boris Johnson as a “wife-beater”, explaining that his friends had stated he attacked his wife but it was “a one-off”.

The BBC said in a statement that Bruce had an obligation to follow right of reply rules when serious allegations were made about people on air, and that she had not been expressing “personal opinion”.

The Guardian reported on Friday that the BBC decided not to broadcast an episode of Attenborough’s new series on British wildlife because of fears that its themes of the destruction of nature would risk a backlash from Tory politicians and the rightwing press.

The BBC strongly denied that this was the case, and insisted the episode in question was never intended for broadcast.