British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Wednesday that he will always defend a strong, independent BBC, at a time when the state broadcaster is facing its worst credibility crisis and a threat from US President Donald Trump to sue it.
The issue was raised in the British Parliament by Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, who asked Starmer if he would intervene in the row between Trump and the BBC to avoid using British taxpayers’ money to settle the claim.
He asked: “Will the Prime Minister ask President Trump to abandon his demand for a billion-dollar settlement from the BBC, and will he ensure that President Trump will not receive a single penny from British license fee payers?” Davey asked.
Donald Trump is coming to the BBC and for your wallet.
I urged the Prime Minister to defend the £23.8m license fee paid to households, and he told Trump he wouldn’t get a penny. pic.twitter.com/ljpsc013GQ
– Ed Davey (@EdwardJDavey) November 12, 2025
“We will stand up for the independent BBC.”
However, Starmer refused to respond directly, but said he would defend a strong, independent BBC.
He said: “I believe in a strong, independent BBC. Some would prefer that the BBC did not exist, and I am not one of them.”
“In the age of misinformation, the case for an impartial British news service is stronger than ever,” Starmer said, adding that “where mistakes are made, they need to get their house in order.”
“But I will always stand for a strong, independent BBC,” he said.
Trump sues BBC
Starmer’s comments come a day after Trump announced, in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, that he intends to follow through on his previous threat to sue the BBC for $1 billion over the broadcaster’s editing of a speech he gave after he lost the 2020 presidential election.
“I think I should do it,” he said. “Because I think they defrauded the public and admitted it.”
In a letter to the BBC, Trump’s lawyer Alejandro Brito demanded an apology to the president and a “full and fair” retraction of the documentary, along with other “false, defamatory, offensive, misleading or inflammatory” statements about Trump. The letter said that if the BBC did not comply with the demands by 5pm EST on Friday, Trump would enforce his legal rights.
BBC Trump controversial documentary
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has been attacked from various quarters over its flagship series “Panorama” entitled “Trump: A Second Chance?” Which was broadcast days before the 2024 US presidential election.
In the documentary, the third-party production company that made the film is accused of stitching together three quotes from two sections of a 2021 speech, delivered about an hour apart, into what appears to be a single quote in which Trump urged his supporters to go along with him and “fight like hell.”
Samir Shah, head of the BBC, issued an apology for the edit, calling it an error in judgement.
The BBC’s director general, Tim Davie, and its head of news, Deborah Torres, announced their resignation over the controversy.
(tags for translation) BBC documentary controversy Trump
