BBC News: Martine Croxall asks if she’s ‘allowed to be this gleeful’

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Campaigners have slammed the BBC after a presenter welcomed the news Boris Johnson had bowed out of the Conservative Party’s leadership contest. Martine Croxall said on The Papers show last night: “Am I allowed to be this gleeful? Well, I am.”

Outraged viewers have demanded action from regulator Ofcom over her comments which raise fresh questions over impartiality at the broadcaster.

The programme aired soon after Mr Johnson announced he was dropping out of the running to be the next prime minister despite supporters having claimed he had the backing of more than 100 MPs.

After the announcement, a jubilant Ms Croxall introduced the show, saying: “Well, this is all very exciting, isn’t it? Hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. Am I allowed to be this gleeful? Well, I am.”

A clip of the comments has since gone viral and sparked a furious backlash on social media with some calling for the journalist to be sacked. Meanwhile, campaign group Defund the BBC accused the broadcaster of not even bothering to hide its bias anymore.

Rebecca Ryan, Campaign Director at Defund the BBC, told Express.co.uk: “The BBC doesn’t even bother to hide its bias anymore. In fact, it finds it pretty hilarious.

“And millions of reluctant Brits, who are forced to fund the corporation, bullied and harassed in their homes, are the butt of the joke.

“It’s time the licence fee was scrapped, once and for all. In the meantime, the British people are realising, in their droves, that if you switch to only watching on demand or catch up (except BBC iPlayer) you can stop paying for this mockery.”

Ms Croxall did not make clear exactly what made her “gleeful” during the programme. The BBC has been approached for comment.

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GB News presenter Nigel Farage wrote on Twitter: “The BBC’s anti-Brexit campaign continues.”

Another person on Twitter wrote: “#MartineCroxall is absolutely disgusting. The #BBC is supposed to be impartial at all times. We all know the corporation is full to the brim of left-wing whackos, but now they don’t even try to hide it.”

Other social media users questioned BBC reporters’ bias, with one writing: “Martine Croxall of BBC News shows her bias when surely a newsreader should be impartial. Unfit for the job.”

Another angry social media user tweeted: “Martine Croxall is rightly being pilloried for this partisan display of giddy excitement as news broke of Boris Johnson dropping out of the leadership contest. This lapse of impartiality and professionalism illustrates why so many accuse the BBC of bias.”

Some social media users have launched a campaign to complain to the BBC while others said they reported Ms Croxall’s comments to Ofcom. 

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Ms Croxall was a newsreader on the day Prince Philip died in April 2021, winning praise for her composure despite being visibly moved as she read the statement from Buckingham Palace.

Sharing her memories of that day with fellow BBC presenter Clive Myrie, she said: “We were messing around a little bit between 11 and 12 o’clock because it was quite a quiet news day.

“Then if you look closely at the sweeping shot to the 12 o’clock headlines there were three people running across the newsroom because there’s some big story.

“So, we go into the headlines at midday and I think everything is fine and then my producer says. ‘Martine, we think the Duke of Edinburgh’s died’. And I had this incredible sense in my body that I wanted to get up and run away.”

One viewer said: “Martine Croxall did a tremendous job, only a moment before her necklace caught around her mic and she explained it when the camera came back to her.

“Next thing she was reading out the breaking news, the catch in her voice betraying her upset as she read the words.”

However, Ms Croxall’s comments on Sunday have fanned the flames of a row over the BBC’s impartiality.  

Senior Conservatives criticised the broadcasting giant earlier this year, accusing the corporation of “outrageous” bias in its coverage of Mr Johnson’s apology over partygate to MPs. 

They were furious at television news and Radio 4’s Today programme, claiming both had allowed an openly anti-Johnson agenda to dominate.

According to MailOnline, a Whitehall insider called the BBC’s coverage of the former Prime Minister’s statement in January “unbearable”, adding: “It feels like the BBC isn’t going to stop until he’s gone. Wednesday night’s News at Ten was extraordinary but Today was even worse.”

Tories pointed to a series of comments from Today presenter Nick Robinson as examples of bias. They were enraged when he asked whether Mr Johnson’s apology “really was an apology”. 

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