Andrew Marr began censoring himself in front of his own before (Picture: BBC)
Andrew Marr has claimed he found himself ‘self-censoring in front of family and friends’ due to the strict impartiality rules at the BBC.
Marr joined the BBC as political editor in 2000 then fronted his own Sunday morning show for 16 years until he fled the broadcaster in 2021 to join LBC on Global to present Tonight with Andrew Marr and joined New Statement as their political editor.
Announcing his exit from the BBC, Marr stressed at the time he was ‘keen to get my own voice back’.
Marr told Radio Times he wishes he was able to call out ‘evident falsehoods’ during his time at the BBC, specifically recalling Boris Johnson falsely claiming Turkey was certain to join the European Union during the Brexit vote.
‘I never wanted to be a ranter or shouter, particularly. But I did want to speak more clearly and go to the kernel of the issues,’ he said.
‘Over time, I was self-censoring on air, and then self-censoring in front of family and friends, and even not saying what I really thought in the pub with friends.
Andrew left BBC and joined LBC at Global too ‘get my voice back’ (Picture: Getty Images)
‘I just thought, “This is absolutely insane, this isn’t why I came into journalism at all”.’
Former Newsnight presenter also quit the BBC in 2022 and joined Global to launch her own podcast alongside her BBC co-star Jon Sopel.
She later attacked the BBC’s restrictive impartiality rules too after she was suspended for criticising Dominic Cummings for breaking lockdown rules during the pandemic.
Gary Lineker was at the centre of his own impartiality row (Picture: Getty Images)
The BBC’s impartiality rule then came under scrutiny again in 2023 when Gary Lineker was suspended and then swiftly reinstated after support from fans for calling out language used by Home Secretary Suella Braverman when describing immigrants.
Marr agreed presenters at ‘the heart of BBC’s political offering’, highlighting Huw Edwards, Laura Kuenssberg and Nick Robinson as the key examples, should be ‘really careful about what they say and do’, but putting sport presenters in the same bracket is ‘ridiculous’.
He did, however, clarify that he is still very much ‘pro BBC’.
‘I think it’s a very important organisation. But it makes some very big mistakes’ he said.
Read Andrew’s full interview in this week’s Radio Times.
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Andrew left the BBC in 2021 to ‘get voice back’.
