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‘Internal warfare raging’ inside BBC over Huw Edwards’ News at Ten slot

16 Aug 2021 5 minute read
Huw Edwards. Picture by the BBC.

Months of “internal warfare” have been “raging” inside the BBC over Huw Edwards’ “stranglehold” on the News at Ten bulletin, it has been reported.

According to Dan Wootton for MailOnline, a household name within the corporation said there’s been a “major push” to “get him to stand down”.

The Welsh broadcaster revealed over the weekend he can’t see himself continuing to occupy the presenter’s chair on the News at Ten for very long.

He said that he found the nightly news “taxing” and thought it was “fair” for the viewers and ambitious co-workers to see a change in presenters.

Edwards also slammed the “clumsy” way the BBC handled the decision to publish the salaries of members of staff, saying that it’s been a “nightmare”.

Wootton said: “In what seemed like a bolt-from-the-blue, Huw Edwards over the weekend came close to revealing he will soon step down from presenting the News at Ten.

“But for many months internal warfare has been raging at the increasingly woke BBC about the Welshman’s stranglehold on the corporation’s flagship bulletin, watched by millions of Brits every night.”

According to Wootton a household name BBC News presenter told him recently: “It’s outrageous that Huw is still in place at the News at Ten and there is a major push underway to get him to stand down and take a reduced role.

“He’s an old white guy and he’s very arrogant. The feeling is that it’s time for the BBC to practice what it preaches on such an important show. Huw hasn’t helped himself and doesn’t have a lot of allies.”

Wootton added: “Such ferocity from the fellow famous presenter towards Huw surprised me.

‘Re-assess’ 

Huw Edwards told Dewi Llwyd’s Sunday Programme on Radio Cymru in an interview before his 60th birthday: “I believe that a time comes when you’re bound to re-assess what’s in front of you,” he said. “That’s perfectly natural.

“And now that a big milestone is here, which is 60 years old, it’s natural for a man to think ‘am I going to continue in this job for another five years or do I want to do something different?’”

He added that like Radio Cymru presenter Dewi Llwyd he was “a natural broadcaster” and so wouldn’t give up presenting or broadcasting.

“But the nightly news business, after 20 years, that can be taxing, even though I still enjoy the job,” he said.

“But I don’t think I’ll be doing that for long. Because I believe that, in the first place, I think it’s fair for the viewers to get a change.

“Secondly, I have co-workers who are very talented – it’s time to give them a chance too.

“And I think it’s an appropriate time to consider what’s ahead.

“I won’t disappear tomorrow from the 10 o clock news because I’m still enjoying myself. But of course, I’m thinking about the working patterns of the future.

“And the truth is that I don’t want to sustain these working patterns for a long time to come because I don’t believe it’s a very wise thing at all.”

The BBC publishes details of salaries, expenses, gifts, hospitality and declaration of personal interests for all senior leaders who earn £150,000 or more per year.

‘Very tedious’ 

But Huw Edwards said that he was unhappy with the way the BBC had handled the matter, saying that it has been “very tedious” for him.

“It has angered me, to be honest,” he said. “Not because I’m embarrassed about pay, especially because I took a huge cut years ago anyway.

“I don’t expect anyone to feel sorry for me. But if you do get a huge pay cut, it’s certainly going to affect you, your psychology, and your attitude towards the work.

“Especially if you see co-workers getting large pay rises and you don’t quite understand why.”

He said that he thought that he did not accept that people had a license to “stick their nose in other people’s business”.

“The whole business about salaries has been a nightmare,” he said. “A nightmare because the BBC in my opinion, and I’ve told them this so I’m not talking behind their backs, have handled the whole thing rather clumsily.

“And of course, if you go to Channel 4, or ITV or Sky, where they earn a lot more money by the way, no one announces their wages because they aren’t in the public sector in the same way.

“I’m thankful that I have a job that pays well. Please don’t misunderstand that. But it can be awkward as well in terms of my personal attitude – for instance, my own children didn’t know, and I’d never tell them, how much I was paid.

“My mother and father always told me it wasn’t my business what other people were paid.”


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Gaynor
Gaynor
3 years ago

The salaries are exhorbitant, but Edwards is no different from any other over paid presenter. He us extremely intelligent and talented person, who is a good Welsh man and does not suffer fools gladly.

Kerry Davies
Kerry Davies
3 years ago

In the most recent reveal of BBC salaries, Edwards was listed as earning between £465,000 and £469,999 per year — considerably lower than the £550,000-£599,999 he was earning in 2017. Newsreaders also write the news in a presentable format and spend their day taking reporter’s work and, with the help of editors and directors creating a show which is both informative and engaging. They don’t just “read aloud”. Jon Snow at ITN is on over a £Million. The BBC were paying slightly below the going rate and HE took that pay cut since then. How do you manage to be wrong… Read more »

Mawkernewek
3 years ago

he’s only just 60, that’s not old!

Cynan
Cynan
3 years ago

oh no the bbc is in internal warfare. how terrible. i really really care about the internal politics of the unionist propaganda broadcaster. whatever will we do?

Gareth
Gareth
3 years ago

He was eyeing up running as a Plaid backed independent President of Wales but that’s not going to happen anytime soon

Cynan
Cynan
3 years ago
Reply to  Gareth

I don’t think that’s true is it? Reductio ad absurdum is a fun little fallacy isn’t it?
but who cares? It’s only the BBC

Pawl
Pawl
3 years ago

Dan Wootton a Mail on Line – dwy ffynhonnell ddibynadwy – ddim!

Kyffin Jones
Kyffin Jones
3 years ago

Come on, Nation Cymru, we don’t have to sink to their level. I read this and decided to rip Dan Wootton for such an anti-Welsh piece. Then I read the story in MailOnline. There is little sense of Cambrophobia in the original – or, at least, what there is, is swamped by the tone he adopts toward all ‘differents’. So, please report accurately. We put up with enough real racism from these pro-union hacks. No need to change the bias. The piece as written shows a lack of respect to many other than us Welsh. And yet you make no… Read more »

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