Sending BBC licence fee money “over to Mar-a-Lago” would not be a “smart” thing to do, the shadow home secretary has said after Donald Trump threatened to sue the corporation for up to $5bn.
Chris Philp said he believed the president is the “wronged party” in his battle with BBC, but that he did not think that using licence fee money to settle the matter would be a good idea.
Mr Trump told reporters on Air Force One over the weekend that he would sue the corporation for “anywhere between $1bn and $5bn probably sometime next week”.
His comments followed an apology from the BBC on Thursday in which it said the Panorama edit of Mr Trump’s Capitol speech on 6 January 2021 had given the “mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action”.
The broadcaster apologised and said the splicing of the speech was an “error of judgment” but refused to pay financial compensation after the US president’s lawyers threatened to sue for $1bn in damages unless a retraction and apology were published.
Asked whether licence fee payers’ money should go towards the White House, Mr Philp told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg: “No, I don’t think so.
“So look, we all work hard and pay our licence fee. I don’t think sending some of it over to Mar-a-Lago would be a smart thing to do.” The historic Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, is owned by Mr Trump.
He had earlier described Mr Trump as the “wronged party” in the row, and said that “we expect a lot higher standard than that of our national broadcaster”.
It comes after the US president indicated he would speak to Sir Keir Starmer over the weekend about the matter.
Home secretary Shabana Mahmood declined to comment on conversations between the PM and the president, but told the same BBC programme that the government supports the corporation.
She urged the broadcaster to “get your house in order” and added: “But we are supporting the BBC and we believe it has an important role to play in our national life, and standing for impartial news in an ever more contested world.”
The BBC said on Saturday that it had not yet had any further contact from Mr Trump’s lawyers.
A spokesperson said: “We have had no further contact from President Trump’s lawyers at this point. Our position remains the same.”
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey suggested that licence fee payers would be “shocked that Donald Trump is coming to pick their pocket”.
Mr Trump has a history of suing news organisations in the US, and settled a legal dispute with CBS News over an interview it broadcast on its 60 Minutes programme with former vice-president Kamala Harris.
The Panorama scandal saw the resignations of two of the BBC’s most senior executives: director-general Tim Davie and news chief Deborah Turness.
The programme, broadcast a week before the 2024 US election results, spliced two clips together so that Mr Trump appeared to tell the crowd: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”
The BBC has said it will not air the Panorama episode “Trump: A Second Chance?” again, and published a retraction on the show’s webpage on Thursday.
