Tim Davie, the BBC’s director-general, has been taken to task by a Conservative MP for failing to include images of the union jack in the corporation’s annual report.
After last week’s row between the Tories and the BBC over patriotic symbols, James Wild, the MP for North West Norfolk, told the head of the corporation that his constituents would “expect to see more than one flag” in the 268-page report.
Davie said the lack of a flag in a report was “a strange metric” by which to measure patriotism within the corporation, and pointed out that a union jack flew over Broadcasting House in central London.
The criticism followed a row last week after the BBC Breakfast presenter Charlie Stayt mocked the communities secretary Robert Jenrick at the end of an early morning interview.
“I think your flag is not up to standard-size government interview measurements,” Stayt told the cabinet minister about the red-white-and-blue cloth hanging from a pole in the far corner of Jenrick’s office.
Referring to the row over Stayt’s comments in a meeting of the public accounts committee, Wild asked Davie: “In your own report last year of 268 pages, do you know how many union flags were pictured in any of the graphics?”
Davie replied: “In all the briefings I got for this meeting, that was not one of them.”
“Zero,” Wild said.
A former special adviser who is married to Natalie Evans, the leader of the House of Lords, Wild said: “Maybe in the annual report for this year perhaps you could include some imagery around the union flag. It might be welcomed by some of my constituents.”
Davie, a former Conservative party councillor candidate, said the corporation was fiercely proud of being British and the flag.
“We’ve been out there selling British abroad, and the UK creative industries for many years and generating strong exports on the back of it. I’m fiercely proud of it, and we’ve got the union jack on top of the building flying proudly.”
“It’s not just about the flag, let’s face it, it’s about the UK and us getting out there and building business for the country,” he said.
Critics of the corporation including several Tory MPs have claimed the Stayt incident shows that the BBC is ashamed of its British links.
Stayt’s co-host, Naga Munchetty, apologised on Friday for “liking” tweets that had mocked the use of flags by government ministers. Another BBC presenter, Huw Edward,s has said he was made to remove a tweet of the Welsh flag that poked fun at a row over the union jack.
Davie has been trying to curb his staff’s social media excesses since taking over at the broadcaster last year.
In October, strict new guidelines were brought in that forbade staff from posting “controversial” opinions online or engaging in “virtue signalling”.
During the committee session, the BBC’s chief operating officer, Glyn Isherwood, disclosed that the broadcaster’s income from over-75s will be more than £400m this year.
The universal right to a free TV licence ended last year for the age group and only those in receipt of pension credit do not have to pay.
Last week, Davie said over-75s would not be threatened with legal action over non-payment of the licence fee.