BBC to expand standards panel and add deputy director general after bias row

The BBC is planning to overhaul the way it investigates editorial concerns, in a move that will dilute the influence of a Conservative figure accused of trying to sway its political impartiality.

A new deputy director general post is also expected to be created to aid Tim Davie’s successor as director general, after concerns that the task of overseeing the corporation has become too big for one person.

The measures are being prepared as the BBC reacts to a crisis that led to the sudden resignations of Davie and Deborah Turness, the head of BBC News.

They left after difficult board-level discussions over claims of liberal bias made in a memo by Michael Prescott, a former independent external adviser to the BBC’s editorial guidelines and standards committee (EGSC). Prescott left tha