Huw Edwards named as BBC presenter at centre of allegations

BBC Newsnight has this evening been hosting a discussion on the latest developments in the story - with opposing views being presented.

Sun columnist Rod Liddle – who was formerly editor of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme – said the newspaper had “behaved impeccably” and had published the story because the accusations being made were in the “public interest”.

He said the aim of the coverage was to “hold the powerful to account”, in particular regarding concerns about safeguarding at the BBC.

Appearing on the same panel, Jacqui Hames, from the campaign group Hacked Off, said the newspaper had to provide “urgent answers” about its coverage.

She said the Sun had forgotten that “there were real people involved in this story” and asked why Sun editors had not appeared on the programme.

Appearing to refer to the hacking scandal of the early 2010s, she said the Sun’s coverage of this story showed “nothing has changed”.

The Sun has defended its reporting, saying in a statement that the allegations it published were “always very serious”.

“We must also re-emphasise that The Sun at no point in our original story alleged criminality and also took the decision neither to name Mr Edwards nor the young person involved in the allegations,” it said.

We’ve had a series of major developments in this story today, so let’s take a moment to recap.

• Huw Edwards has been named as the BBC presenter at the centre of allegations over payments for sexually explicit images. His wife, Vicky Flind, identified him in a statement to the media sent on her husband's behalf
• Flind said her husband was in hospital with "mental health issues" and will be there for the foreseeable future
• Met detectives say no criminal offence took place and there will be no further police action
• The BBC's director general, Tim Davie, sent an email to staff saying an internal investigation would continue now police were no longer involved
• The BBC is facing fresh allegations of inappropriate behaviour by Edwards towards junior staff. Two current workers and one former member of staff claim they were sent messages that made them uncomfortable

Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's former communications director-turned podcast host and commentator, has said the Huw Edwards story shows what happens when "media culture loses any sense of perspective about a story".

The broadcaster’s coverage in the first 24 hours of the story was reasonable but reporting since then has turned into a “feeding frenzy”, he told BBC news.

“We have to get a grip on our sense of perspective when these things happen,” he said, pointing to other big stories happening at the moment, like the Nato summit and Boris Johnson's Whatsapp messages not being passed to the Covid inquiry.

Earlier, he tweeted that he hoped "almost certainly in vain - that Huw and his family are given the privacy they need and to which they are entitled. And the same goes for all others involved in this story".

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

The BBC should be given space to conduct an investigation into the allegations against Huw Edwards, Security Minister Tom Tugendhat has said, adding it’s important the presenter’s family is “not dragged into this”.

"After all, there's one person who's been alleged to have done wrong, not his whole family,” he told Sky News.

Tugendhat says he only has “partial information” about what has happened, and that he doesn’t want to rush to judgement in the face of “serious allegations”.

“The correct thing to do is to find out what actually happened before casting aspersions on anyone,” he says.

Noble/DraperCopyright: Noble/Draper

As we've been reporting, the statement naming Huw Edwards as the presenter at the centre of the allegations was released by his wife Vicky Flind, on his behalf.

Flind is a TV producer who has worked as an editor on ITV's politics show Peston since 2018.

Labour MP Jess Phillips tweeted that Flind was "by some distance one of the nicest, kindest and most decent women I've had the privilege to work with".

A former BBC journalist, Robert Rea, who used to work with Flind, tweeted: "She is a lovely human being who - whatever your view about the rest of this sordid saga - truly does not deserve to be in the position she finds herself in. Thoughts and prayers with her."

BBCCopyright: BBC

Huw Edwards is a celebrated BBC presenter who has been with the broadcaster for decades.

He joined BBC News as a trainee in 1984, and secured a job as political reporter for BBC Wales. Just two years later, he became BBC Wales's parliamentary correspondent.

By the early 1990s he was the BBC's chief political correspondent at Westminster, and became a regular on the BBC News channel, then called BBC News 24, after it launched in 1997.

He anchored the news of Queen Elizabeth II's death last year, for which he was widely praised by viewers. He and colleagues received a TRIC award, which was presented last month.

Edwards was also an integral part of Welsh media culture for decades. He has received awards from several Welsh universities, and was inducted as a member of the Gorsedd of the Bards at the National Eisteddfod in Tregaron in 2022.

Read more about Huw Edwards here.

BBC Newsnight has also spoken to one current and one former BBC worker who said they’d received inappropriate messages from Edwards, some late at night and signed off with kisses.

One said they felt it was an abuse of power by someone very senior in the organisation. Both workers who spoke to Newsnight, and the other employee, spoke of a reluctance among junior staff to complain to managers about the conduct of high-profile colleagues in case it adversely affected their careers.

On Wednesday, the Met Police said it had concluded its assessment of the explicit photo allegations published by the Sun and found nothing to indicate any criminal offence had been committed.

In an email to staff, director general Tim Davie said the BBC’s fact-finding investigation would now continue.

He said “the aim must be to navigate through this with care and consideration, in line with the BBC Values”.

He also urged anyone with concerns or information to come forward.

As the BBC resumes its investigation into the Huw Edwards explicit photos row, it is facing fresh allegations tonight of inappropriate behaviour by the presenter.

A BBC employee has told BBC News they received “suggestive” messages from Edwards that made them feel uncomfortable. BBC News has seen the messages, which refer to the staff member’s appearance and were sent this year.

Describing a power dynamic that made the messages “inappropriate”, the employee called on BBC managers to look into the relationship dynamics between presenters and junior staff.

"They have huge salaries and great deference is shown to presenters," said the employee, who said they were nevertheless proud to work for the BBC.

The BBC said: “We always treat the concerns of staff with care, and would urge anyone to speak to us if they have any concerns. We have clear processes for making complaints.”

Newscast has finished recording an episode after the breaking news about Huw Edwards.

Adam Fleming, host of the podcast, spoke with media editor Katie Razzall and home and legal correspondent Dominic Casciani.

They discussed the police decision that no criminal offence had taken place and the implications for privacy.

“You’ve got a bizarre situation here where Huw Edwards has been named - and remember we’ve been talking about all this privacy stuff and about this reasonable expectation of privacy about matters in their private lives - and his identity’s out there, yet in relation to the most damaging and serious allegation that has been made against him there’s nothing there,” said Dominic Casciani.

You can listen to the full podcast here on BBC Sounds

The Huw Edwards story has become a crisis for the Sun, rather than the BBC, a former editor of the paper has said.

David Yelland, who edited the paper from 1998 to 2003 and has since been critical of the tabloid press, tweeted: "The Sun inflicted terror on Huw despite no evidence of any criminal offence.

"This is no longer a BBC crisis, it is a crisis for the paper. Huw's privacy must now be respected. Social media also needs speedy reform."

The Sun has said it has no plans to publish further allegations.

The Sun also said in its statement that at no point in its original front-page story on Friday did it allege criminality had occurred.

The newspaper reported that Edwards paid the person for pictures when they were 17 – but it did not explain that such actions could be an offence. Under-18s are classed as children in the law covering sexual images. This is higher than the age of sexual consent, which is 16.

In later versions of the story, the Sun changed the wording of this allegation to "it is understood contact between two started when the youngster was 17".

The Sun added: "From the outset, we have reported a story about two very concerned and frustrated parents who made a complaint to the BBC about the behaviour of a presenter and payments from him that fuelled the drug habit of a young person.

"We reported that the parents had already been to the police who said that they couldn't help. The parents then made a complaint to the BBC which was not acted upon.

"It is now for the BBC to properly investigate."

A lot has taken place in the last few hours so here's a re-cap:

• Huw Edwards has been named as the BBC presenter facing allegations over payments for sexually explicit images

• His wife Vicky Flind issued a statement on his behalf, saying he was "suffering mental health issues" and is now receiving in-patient hospital care for the foreseeable future"
• Flind asked that the "privacy of my family and everyone else caught up in these upsetting events is respected"
• The Met Police and South Wales Police have both ended their assessments into the allegations and each determined there is no evidence of a criminal offence
• The BBC says it is now resuming its investigation "whilst continuing to be mindful of our duty of care to all involved”
• The Sun says it has no plans to publish further allegations about Edwards and will co-operate with the BBC's investigation

Here's more from The Sun, which, as we reported earlier, says it has no more plans to publish further allegations against Huw Edwards.

"The allegations published by The Sun were always very serious. Further serious allegations have emerged in the past few days," it says in a statement.

"It is right that the BBC's Corporate Investigations Team continues to investigate these thoroughly and deals with them in the way that they think is appropriate. The Sun will cooperate with the BBC's internal investigation process."

The Sun says it will "provide the BBC team with a confidential and redacted dossier containing serious and wide-ranging allegations which we have received, including some from BBC personnel".

PACopyright: PA

BBC Director General Tim Davie has just sent an internal e-mail to all employees of the BBC.

He mentioned Vicky Flind's statement as "a reminder that the last few days have seen personal lives played out in public - at the heart of this are people and their families".

He continued: "I want to reassure you that our immediate concern is our duty of care to all involved."

Davie wrote that now the police assessment has been concluded, the BBC now continues its fact finding investigations.

"I want to be clear that in doing so we will follow due process." he writes.

"This remains a very complex set of circumstances. As we have done throughout, our aim must be to navigate through this with care and consideration, in line with the BBC Values."

Lis Howell, former managing editor at Sky news and director of broadcasting at City University of London, thinks that the privacy laws made it very difficult for anyone to name the presenter, so "it had to come either from the presenter or someone representing him".

She says Edwards' wife, Vicky Flind, "has been unbelievably brave - it must be incredibly difficult for her". "However I'm sure it's the best thing, that this has now come out and can be dealt with."

There will be "an enormous amount of sympathy and concern" for Edwards, she says, who is "really well loved by the British public".

She says there are still questions - as even though no criminality has been identified, that "doesn't mean that right things were done at the time".

"There are obviously other people involved, who feel they've been wronged and that has got to be taken into account," she says.

BBCCopyright: BBC

Huw Edwards was last seen on BBC One's News at Ten on Wednesday 5 July, when he co-presented a special edition live from Edinburgh.

He was in the Scottish capital to bring viewers coverage of that day's events - as the Coronation of King Charles III was formally recognised.

Edwards described "a day of grand ceremony" as the King was presented with the Honours of Scotland, known as Scotland's Crown Jewels.

The anchor was told of allegations against him the following day, according to his wife Vicky Flind. That night's programme was presented by Clive Myrie.