calls on Theresa May’s former aide Sir Robbie Gibb to quit the BBC for ‘trying to block’ Jess Brammar | UK News

Labor has called for Theresa May’s former communications director to be sacked from the BBC’s board for claiming to have tried to block someone from a managerial post for political reasons.

Sir Robbie Gibb, who became a non-executive director of the Corporation in May, tried to prevent Jess Brammar, former HuffPost UK editor and Newsnight reporter, from becoming BBC executive editor, according to the Financial Times.

Sir Robbie, a former senior BBC reporter, texted Fran Unsworth, BBC news and current affairs director, saying the broadcaster “cannot take this appointment” because “the fragile trust of the government in the BBC will be broken “if he did, the newspaper reported. .

Deputy Leader of the Labor Party Angela Rayner has written to BBC Managing Director Tim Davie demanding Sir Robbie be removed from his post.

“If Robbie Gibb does not resign, the president of the BBC must fire him,” she wrote on Twitter.

Jo Stevens, shadow secretary for digital, culture, media and sports, added: “These allegations raise very serious questions about the conservative cronyism at the heart of the BBC.

“If Robbie Gibb is in office to advance the interests of the Conservatives over the public interest, then he is in the wrong job.”

Ms Brammar had applied for a newly created post which oversees the BBC’s production on its UK and global news channels, according to the FT.

She worked as deputy editor of BBC Newsnight and ran the HuffPost UK website until the company was taken over by Buzzfeed, which laid off editorial staff.

Sir Robbie now works as a senior communications advisor at Kekst CNC and is director of the Jewish Chronicle, but was Theresa May’s communications director from 2017 to 2019.