Tim Davie, the BBC’s director general, refused antisemitism training for the broadcaster, the Government’s adviser on anti-Jewish hatred has revealed.
Lord Mann, Sir Keir Starmer’s independent adviser on antisemitism, said he had visited BBC bosses to offer training on three occasions since taking up his role in 2019.
However, he said senior figures, including Mr Davie himself, turned down his repeated offers despite growing fears of an antisemitism problem at the BBC.
In a strongly worded condemnation of the broadcaster, Lord Mann accused it of failing to take seriously allegations of antisemitism and alleged anti-Israel bias in its reporting, saying there was an “arrogance at the top”.
He called for senior executives of the news corporation to be sacked for signing off on a controversial documentary.
Titled Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone, it attempted to tell the story of children living in the Gaza Strip during the war between Israel and Hamas.
However, revelations that the narrator was the child of a Hamas government official in Gaza caused an uproar in February.
Hamas – which is a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK – orchestrated and carried out the biggest atrocity against Jews since the Holocaust on October 7 2023.
An internal BBC review found “serious flaws” in the making of the documentary, which was pulled from iPlayer shortly after broadcast.
Referring to the scandal, Lord Mann said: “Heads should roll. And the heads that roll shouldn’t just be the little heads. You know that’s always the danger with organisations the size of the BBC. Oh hey, there’s something wrong, let’s get rid of a few of the people at the bottom. No, let’s get rid of some at the top, would be my view.
“Someone at the top should carry the can. It’s not acceptable and I’ve been in there several times, I’ve offered them training, they’ve never accepted it. I think there’s often an arrogance there.”
He told The Telegraph: “Tim Davie and others who I’ve met, they’ve had those offers. And I challenge and question why they have not accepted it. More fool them. They haven’t done. They should have done.”
