Emily Maitlis has apologised for retweeting a message criticising the “sheer tawdry Trumpian shabbiness” of the UK government’s response to the Downing Street parties.
The Newsnight presenter, 51, shared a tweet by former Tory Cabinet minister Rory Stewart, in which he said “it is difficult to see how much more of this the party or our political system can survive”.
Mr Stewart was responding to a video of an interview in which British culture secretary Nadine Dorries defended Boris Johnson’s handling of the publication of Sue Gray’s “update”.
I have deleted my earlier retweet of the below and would like to apologise for the hurt I have caused. https://t.co/b0XqCO3t7C
— emily m (@maitlis) February 1, 2022
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Maitlis wrote: “I have deleted my earlier retweet of the below and would like to apologise for the hurt I have caused.
“For the avoidance of doubt I accept I should have added extra context – it was retweeted in haste – and was wrong to do.”
In doing so, she reshared Mr Stewart’s original message.
A spokeswoman for the BBC declined to comment further.
In June, Maitlis was reprimanded by the broadcaster after she shared a post by Piers Morgan on social media which it described as “clearly controversial”.
A statement on the complaints section of the BBC’s website criticised the journalist and presenter’s social media activity after she shared the post by former Good Morning Britain presenter Morgan in February.
The Twitter post said: “If failing to quarantine properly is punishable by 10yrs in prison, what is the punishment for failing to properly protect the country from a pandemic?”
BBC director-general Tim Davie warned staff over their use of social media when he took on the role at the end of 2020.
In the same year, the BBC ruled a monologue by Maitlis on Newsnight about the row over Dominic Cummings’ trip to Durham breached impartiality rules.
