Carol Vorderman, the former Countdown star and BBC Radio Wales presenter, has announced that she is leaving her Saturday morning show after five years, citing the new social media guidelines introduced by the BBC as the reason.
Vorderman, 62, said in a statement that she was “not prepared to lose my voice” on social media, where she has been vocal about her criticism of the UK government and its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, Brexit, and other issues.
She said that the new guidelines, which were set out by the BBC following an impartiality row involving Gary Lineker, would apply to all and any content that she posts all year round, even though her show was light-hearted and had no political content.
She said that she had breached the new guidelines and that BBC Wales management had decided that she must leave.
She added that she was sad to leave her friends at Radio Wales and thanked the listeners for their support.
The new guidelines, conducted by former ITN boss John Hardie, state that presenters on flagship shows must not endorse or attack a political party, criticise the character of individual politicians in the UK, or take up an official role in campaigning groups.
They also prohibit presenters from expressing personal views on controversial topics, such as immigration, climate change, or public health, on social media or other platforms.
The guidelines were prompted by a tweet by Gary Lineker, the Match of the Day presenter, who compared the language used to launch a new government asylum seeker policy with that of 1930s Germany on X, formerly Twitter, in March.
Lineker was briefly suspended by the BBC for his tweet, which he later deleted and apologised for.
The BBC said that the new guidelines were designed to protect the impartiality and reputation of the BBC and its presenters and to ensure that the public trust in the BBC is maintained.
A BBC spokesperson said: “We are sorry to see Carol go and we thank her for her contribution to BBC Radio Wales over the last five years. We wish her all the best for the future.”
