BBC newsreader Martine Croxall returns after launching declare

BBC newsreader Martine Croxall has returned to screens after launching a sexual discrimination claim against the broadcaster.

She returned to BBC News following her launching a tribunal claim against her employers.

The presenter, 55, has previously alleged along with other senior female BBC journalists Kasia Madera, Annita McVeigh and Karin Giannone that they were kept off air for a year.

They say this was after they were snubbed for chief presenter roles following the merger of the BBC’s News and World News channels.

Announcing her return, Croxall wrote on X, formerly Twitter, saying: ‘Ya’ll ready for this? Back on BBCNews at 1100 BST.’

The presenter, who has worked for the BBC since October 1991 and been a chief presenter with the BBC News Channel and BBC World News since 2001, shared the message along with a video of her in the studio saying: ‘Now, where were we?’

Croxall, who has also appeared on BBC One network news bulletins, previously spent nearly two weeks off air in 2022 over claims she had showed bias when Boris Johnson pulled out of the Conservative leadership contest.

She said she was ‘gleeful’ while presenting an edition of the former The Papers programme, and while responding to a guest’s joke aimed at the former Prime Minister, she said: ‘I shouldn’t probably (laugh). I’m probably breaking some terrible due impartiality rule by giggling.’

Croxall was congratulated by Madera, who returned earlier this month, Giannone and McVeigh, who came back to work on March 18.

‘Great to see my friend and colleague @MartineBBC back on @BBCNews,’ Madera wrote.

Giannone called it a ‘treat’ and wrote: ‘As soon as the leg mends, I’ll be there too.’

Earlier this month, the journalists were seen together as they attended preliminary hearings for their discrimination claims at the Central London Employment Tribunal.

Croxall, McVeigh and Madera allege discrimination on the grounds of age, sex, being a union member and wages.

Giannone alleges discrimination based on age, sex and wages.

The women claim they have been left to suffer victimisation, harassment and reputational damage.

At a preliminary hearing, the journalists, who had previously reached settlements with the broadcaster, were told they would not be able to bring a claim for equal pay.

A BBC spokesman said: ‘We are pleased with the result and that the tribunal has accepted our position.

‘We will not be commenting further at this stage.’

It is believed that the BBC’s position is that it had complied with equal pay legislation, and applied a rigorous and fair recruitment process, and that all managers conducted that process properly.

The women were given the go-ahead to have their cases heard jointly.

One of them said previously that the BBC ‘grinds you down. It breaks you’ when it comes to pay claims. The group are also making equal pay claims against the corporation.

In their witness statements, which appear to be similar, the women said: ‘I am one of five female chief presenters with BBC News, aged 48 to 55, at the time of the detriments, who have suffered (direct/indirect) discrimination on the grounds of age and sex victimisation for union rep activities, victimisation for carrying out protected acts (bringing equal pay claims), harassment (violation of dignity, creation of a hostile, degrading, intimidating environment in the workplace, causing us to suffer ill-health and reputational damage).’

The women believed they have not been paid equally compared with their male counterparts since February 2020 and there was a gap of about £36,000 a year in pensionable salary as of February 2023.

The BBC says the application process was ‘rigorous and fair’, the BBC News website reported. It also denies the four were paid less than an equivalent male colleague.

Court documents, quoted by the BBC News website said: ‘It is denied that [the BBC] has subjected [the presenters] to age or sex discrimination, harassment or victimisation, or has breached the sex equality clause.’

It is understood that they claimed management had already chosen who they wanted before people had even applied.

But BBC bosses were said to have rejected the claims after an internal review took place.

Following new vacancies at the channel, Ms McVeigh is understood to have both taken chief presenter roles and recently appeared on air.

Like Ms Croxall, neither Ms Giannone nor Ms Madera had appeared on the news channel in over a year.

It is understood Ms Croxall, who has been at the BBC since 1991, has been discussing her future at the BBC with bosses.

In Ms Croxall’s original claim form, from 2023, it is alleged that just ahead of the July 2022 announcement on the reorganisation of the news channels, the BBC’s channels manager Jess Brammar ‘privately assured’ four other chief presenters – two men and two ‘younger’ women- that their jobs were ‘safe’.

In witness statements made available in the court, at London Central Employment Tribunal, the group raise serious concerns that the appointment to the roles was not conducted fairly.

In Ms Croxall’s statement, which is similar to those of the three other women, she claimed the women had suffered ‘discrimination on the grounds of age and sex’.

She claimed they had suffered ‘harassment’ with a ‘hostile, degrading, intimidating environment in the workplace’ which caused ‘ill health’ and ‘reputational damage’.

Ms Croxall said: ‘This was because of a sham recruitment exercise where our jobs were closed even though the redundancies were not genuine as the work still exists.’

It was claimed four of the women were demoted and three faced sizeable pay cuts. One was said to have had ‘her pay cut for half of her job’.

Ms Croxall’s statement claims: ‘No men and no women younger than us suffered these detriments.’