BBC chiefs agree they must fight internal 'liberal bias' and 'groupthink'

The BBC chairman yesterday indicated “the BBC does have a liberal bias” but added “the institution is fighting against it.”

Richard Sharp, in an interview in the Sunday Times, said he and Tim Davie, the director-general, had drawn up a ten-point plan on impartiality, anti-bias training along with reviews of news output in a drive to tackle the issue.

He indicated the decision to transfer departments into the regions, including the north of England, Scotland and Wales, by Davie will help the BBC become less Londoncentric, “which can create groupthink”.

The BBC was taken aback by Brexit.

Mr Sharp said: “I’ve got Bloomberg TV on in here for a reason. It’s excellent. We have to raise our game.”

He added: "The BBC’s correspondents and editors are “first rate”, but across the institution business and finance “are not as well understood as they should be. We need to do a better job of explaining them, especially when inflation is forcing the government and the opposition to make very difficult choices.” 

The challenge facing the BBC remains around funding, with calls to axe the abolition of the £159 licence fee, which generates £3.7 billion a year and accounts for 74 per cent of the BBC's revenue.

A knock-on effect of the freeze in the licence fee is that the corporation's income has dropped by 30 per cent compared to a decade ago.

Mr Sharp, who previously worked for Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, underlined the licence fee was "good value" for money – the equivalent of 43 pence a day.