Carol Vorderman takes swipe at BBC for ‘sexist’ sacking resolution

Carol Vorderman has taken a swipe at the BBC as she implied their choice to sack her was a ‘sexist’ move.

The former Countdown star, 63, claimed in an interview with The Sunday Times Magazine that she was ‘threatened’ by the channel for her controversial tweets about the then- Conservative government.

Carol was axed from her role at BBC Radio Wales because she was ‘not prepared to stop’ venting her ‘strong beliefs’ on her social media pages.

In the same week she was sacked, Huw Edwards was arrested for making indecent images of children – to which he pleaded guilty in July.

Speaking to the publication, she said: ‘BBC management made two decisions about two presenters within 24 hours – one was to sack me for five innocuous tweets.

‘The other, knowing the serious nature of Huw’s arrest, was to keep him on and carry on paying his salary, I mean … no sexism!’

Carol had been accused of ‘flagrantly breaching’ the BBC’s impartiality rules with her anti-Tory outbursts, which have included calling ministers ‘a lying bunch of greedy, corrupt, destructive, hateful, divisive, gaslighting crooks’.

The BBC brought in new social media rules for its presenters following outrage last year over Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker’s tweet comparing the Government’s Rwanda policy to Nazi Germany.

Carol revealed the change in social media rules were a threat.

She told the publication: ‘It was a threat. ‘You shut up or we’ll sack you.’ Well, f***ing sack me then.

MailOnline has contacted the BBC for a comment.  

Some of Carol’s controversial tweets to ministers included one including her questioning if the Conservative Party is the ‘sleaziest in history’ and wrote on Twitter that the public is ‘ashamed’ about the Home Secretary’s recent remarks about homelessness.

Suella Braverman claimed on the social media platform that rough sleeping is sometimes a ‘lifestyle choice’ and called for and end to ‘pitching tents in public spaces’.

Carol quoted her post, saying: ‘What I want to stop, and what the law-abiding majority wants to stop, is your vile government clinging on to power for a day longer. 

‘You don’t speak for us. Every week you debase democracy further. We’re ashamed of you. Go now.’

In August 2023, the presenter mocked Penny Mordaunt’s call to bring back national service.

She wrote: ‘Bring Back National Service’ cries Penny Mordaunt. What a pile of utter nonsense. She also spouts that Tories alone believe in personal responsibility and looking after others. WOW! Current Tories care only about themselves and their snouts in the troughs of power and money. FACT’

And in June 2023 she tweeted: ‘The Tory Gov has now lost around half of those who voted for them in 2019. Why? Cos they’re a lying bunch of greedy, corrupt, destructive, hateful, divisive, gaslighting crooks. No need for a focus group Sunak….it’ll just tell you the same…’

Huw, 62, was arrested on suspicion of receiving the images via a WhatsApp exchange with paedophile Alex Williams, 25, in November 2023. He was charged this year on June 26.

In July, Huw pleaded guilty to possessing seven category A images, 12 category B images and 22 category C images of children at Westminster magistrates’ court.

Until last year, the former news anchor was one of the primary presenters on BBC One’s News at Ten, often covering major national events.

And while he has not been facing the BBC programme for over a year, he has been allowed to keep his monthly salary.

Huw has never publicly commented in year since he was suspended.

MailOnline understands he received no pay off from the BBC – but had been paid his £439,000-a-year salary while he was suspended.

Huw was the corporation’s highest paid newsreader, with a pay bracket of £435,000 – £439,999 in the year 2022/2023, according to the corporation’s most recent annual report.

This was up from £410,000 – £414,000 the year before, putting him fourth on the 2022/23 list.

TV executive and former Editor-in-Chief and Chief Executive of ITN, Stewart Purvis, said last year: ‘Huw Edwards has been paid half a million pounds a year to do nothing, I don’t think that situation could have continued any longer.

‘They’re saying that it’s at the request of Huw Edwards but there will be relief across the BBC that this situation has been resolved because frankly it has become embarrassing for the BBC quite how long it was taking to sort it out.

He continued: ‘Looking at the high, high profile of Huw Edwards, looking at all the other knock-on issues, for instance, who is going to present the BBC’s election night programme?’.