Byline Times’ Wootton Allegations ‘Unfounded’, BBC Producer Tells MP John Nicolson

A BBC producer informed an MP interviewed by the broadcaster about GB News’ suspension of Dan Wootton that he was not allowed to mention the allegations in Byline Times’ investigation into the presenter because they are “unfounded”.

SNP MP John Nicolson – a member of the House of Commons’ Culture, Media and Sport Committee – was interviewed by Evan Davis for BBC Radio 4’s PM show on Wednesday following Wootton’s suspension from GB News in a misogyny storm along with actor-turned-activist Laurence Fox. The topic focused on how regulator Ofcom should respond to the broadcaster.

On the show, Mr Nicolson said “I was very interested in the investigation by Byline Times into Dan Wootton. It was a very good piece…” – before Mr Davis intervened and said “I don’t want to go into unrelated issues”.

Mr Davis then asked Mr Nicolson whether there was a danger that his views amounted to wanting to censor channels which give a platform to opinions that he didn’t like, to which the MP replied: “I don’t want censorship, I want Ofcom to enforce its own rules. And the point I was going to make is, you said the channel had responded by suspending Dan Wootton… there have been serious accusations about Dan Wootton for some time which have received remarkably little coverage in the press and which are worthy of investigation.”

Mr Davis responded by saying “well, that’s not what we’re discussing here”. To which Mr Nicolson said: “Well, it’s relevant because he’s a presenter on the channel and he’s now been suspended.” 

“We’ll leave it there,” was how Mr Davis then ended the interview.