The presenter apologised for her comment (Picture: BBC)
Fiona Bruce has quit her role as a Refuge ambassador after being accused of trivialising domestic abuse on Question Time.
According to PA, the presenter announced that she had stepped down from the position in light of the controversy.
Bruce said that she was ‘deeply sorry’ after making a remark about domestic abuse while speaking about Stanley Johnson on the BBC programme last week.
In a statement, she said that it was with ‘real sadness’ that she had made her decision.
‘It is with real sadness that I have decided to step back from my role as an ambassador for the domestic abuse charity Refuge,’ she said.
‘Last week on Question Time, I was required to legally contextualise a question about Stanley Johnson. Those words have been taken as an expression of my own opinions which they are absolutely not, and as a minimising of domestic abuse, which I would never do.
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‘I know survivors of domestic abuse have been distressed by what I was required to say on-air. For that, I am deeply sorry. I cannot change what I was required to say, but I can apologise for the very real impact that I can see it has had.’
The 58-year-old stressed that she is a ‘passionate advocate and campaigner for all survivors of domestic abuse’, and she has used her ‘privileged position as a woman in the public eye to bring this issue to the fore’, particularly through her work with the charity over the past 25 years.
‘But following the events of last week, I have faced a social media storm, much of which mischaracterised what I said and took the form of personal abuse directed at me,’ she added.
It’s been a few days since the Question Time programme in question aired (Picture: BBC)
‘The only people that matter in all this are the survivors, they are my priority. The last thing in the world that I would want is that this issue in any way creates a distraction from Refuge’s critical work on their behalf, and therefore I think the right thing to do is to step back from my role with Refuge.’
Bruce emphasised that she will ‘continue to be an active supporter’ of Refuge, ‘albeit from the sidelines for now’.
In a biography written about former Prime Minister Boris Johnson called The Gambler, it’s alleged that his father Stanley broke his mother Charlotte’s nose.
Charlotte is quoted as saying: ‘He broke my nose. He made me feel like I deserved it.’
The comment was made while discussing Stanley Johnson, Boris Johnson’s father (Picture: David M. Benett/Getty Images)
When the book was released in October 2020, both Stanley and Number 10 declined to comment, while Stanley was said to ‘deeply regret’ the alleged incident.
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The presenter apologised for her comment.