THE BBC’s biggest union demanded the removal of Sir Robbie Gibb from the BBC board today in the wake of the Donald Trump speech-editing scandal.

Creative industries union Bectu warned Sir Robbie’s position was “a distraction and untenable” in a letter to Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy and BBC board chairman Samir Shah.

Sir Robbie was director of communications for Theresa May when she was prime minister and a political appointment to the BBC board in 2021.

The BBC was awaiting a response from the US president last night after apologising for splicing a speech which appeared on Panorama in 2024. It has rejected his demands for $1 billion (£760m) compensation over what it calls an “error of judgment.”

BBC CEO Tim Davie and news chief Deborah Turness resigned after the Telegraph published a memo by Michael Prescott, a former external adviser to the BBC’s editorial standards committee, raising concerns over the episode.

Bectu’s letter said staff were “unsurprisingly anxious about entering [the BBC’s forthcoming charter review] with a vacuum of leadership and without a new director-general in place.”

“And they are concerned about the BBC’s ability to resist partisan political pressure and uphold the integrity of its journalism,” it added.

“We simply do not see how staff can have faith in the BBC’s leadership while a crucial position on the board is filled by someone perceived by many staff and external commentators as sympathetic to, or actively part of, a campaign to undermine the BBC and influence its political impartiality.”

Asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme whether Sir Robbie had overstepped his remit and weighed in on politics, Ms Nandy said: “What I can say to you is that … I think there is a real concern, which I share, that political appointments to the board of the BBC damaged confidence and trust in the BBC’s impartiality.

“That’s something that we will be looking at as part of the charter review, which sets the terms for the BBC for the next decade and which this government is about to kick off.”

Sir Robbie declined to comment on the matter.