Veteran broadcaster David Dimbleby is considering applying to become the next chairman of the BBC to thwart the government’s attempt to bring it “to heel”.
The former Question Time host said he was “horrified” by reports that Charles Moore, the former editor of the Daily Telegraph, was Downing Street’s top choice for the position.
Moore, an arch-critic of the BBC, has since ruled himself out of contention amid reports of family health problems.
Dimbleby told the BBC’s Newscast podcast that the appointment of Moore would have been “a malign intervention.”
“I think you need someone with a more open mind,” he said. “I still might [apply], depending on who comes forward. Well, we’ll see who the candidates are. Boris Johnson, we know, wants to bring the BBC to heel. We don’t want a chairman who connives in that ambition.
“You want somebody in charge of the BBC who is sympathetic not to the BBC as an institution but to the concept of the BBC as reflecting the whole richness of British life.”
Dimbleby said he was “horrified” by reports of Moore being “lined up”.
“Not because of his political views,” he explained, “but because he hates the BBC. I thought for Johnson to put in post someone who hates the BBC was very dangerous.
“The BBC is not doing its job if the political class in power doesn’t hate it. The BBC is a thorn in the side of government and that is its job.”
The current chairman, David Clementi, stands down in February.
