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A BBC presenter failed the broadcaster’s standards on impartiality when she remarked how “gleeful” she was to see Boris Johnson pull out of the most recent Tory leadership race, it has been revealed. The broadcaster stated that Martine Croxall’s comments “caused significant risk that the audience could believe opinions were being expressed on the Conservative leadership contest”. It added that there was “insufficient counter and challenge” to opinions expressed by other guests on the programme. During her introduction to the programme, in which members of the press and experts look at how the main stories of the day were covered, Ms Croxall said: “Well this is all very exciting, isn’t it?” She then added: “Am I allowed to be this gleeful? Well I am.”

In her first question to her guests, she also remarked: “Can we even show you the front pages just yet, have they arrived? No, they haven’t arrived. It’s all a little bit, you know, lastminute.com isn’t it? Because all the front pages were probably out of date by the time we received them.”

Then, responding to a guest’s joke aimed at Mr Johnson, Ms Croxall, 53, appeared to joke about the importance of the impartiality guidelines, stating: “I shouldn’t probably laugh. I’m probably breaking some terrible due impartiality rule by giggling.”

The programme started at 10.30pm on October 23, around 90 minutes after Boris Johnson pulled out of the Tory leadership race.

The BBC quickly took the presenter off the air – but commenters and politicians soon weighed in with their disappointment at Ms Croxall’s behaviour.

Former culture secretary Nadine Dorries, who had backed Mr Johnson’s bid for the leadership race, tweeted: “This lack of impartiality demonstrates how deep seated the bias is.”

Nick Timothy, previously an adviser to former prime minister Theresa May, tweeted: “Whatever you think of Johnson if you care about the BBC you cannot think this is in any way acceptable from one of its presenters.”

Conservative MP Neil O’Brien branded the presenter’s comments “self-destructive”.

Ms Croxall later tweeted that viewers needed to understand the “context” of what she was saying. 

She said her comments were about “the rollercoaster of politics” and called it “fascinating to report on”.

The BBC’s full statement read: “In this programme several remarks and reactions from the presenter caused a significant risk that the audience could believe opinions were being expressed on the Conservative leadership contest.

“In addition, there was insufficient counter and challenge to some of the opinions expressed by guests on the programme.

“Taken together, this meant that this edition of The Papers did not meet our editorial standards, as it gave the audience the opportunity to infer an editorial position on the part of the BBC. This does not accord with the BBC’s commitment to editorial impartiality.”

Last week, the Channel 4 news anchor Krishnan Guru-Murthy was taken off air for a week after he was caught making an offensive comment off-camera about the Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker.

During an off-air moment after his exchange with Baker last Wednesday, Mr Guru-Murthy was heard to say: “What a c***.”

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