BBC asks disgraced presenter Huw Edwards to return £200,000 of salary | Huw Edwards

The BBC has asked Huw Edwards to return £200,000 that he was paid following his arrest in November last year, after the disgraced presenter admitted making indecent images of children.

A statement from the corporation said Edwards, who announced the death of Queen Elizabeth II, had “undermined trust in the BBC and brought us into disrepute” and they wanted him to repay his salary.

The BBC does not have an easy legal route to claw back the money, so it is appealing to Edwards to return the funds on the basis that he was not “upfront” about his guilt when asked about his arrest.

The presenter had been signed off work on full pay since last June after the Sun disclosed his financial payments to a young man for sexual explicit images, along with other allegations about inappropriate messages sent to younger BBC employees.

In November Edwards was arrested on an entirely unrelated matter after his number was found by South Wales police in a phone belonging to a convicted paedophile. This ultimately led to him pleading guilty to making images of young children.

A small number of BBC executives, including the director general, Tim Davie, and the BBC News boss, Deborah Turness, were informed of Edwards’s arrest last autumn but with no charges brought, they did not sack him immediately – a decision they may now regret . The newsreader eventually negotiated his exit from the BBC in April after being paid hundreds of thousands of pounds while on medical leave.

Edwards was eventually charged with having 41 indecent images of children, which had been sent to him by another man on WhatsApp, and last month he pleaded guilty to all offenses.

Staff in the BBC newsroom have been furious at Edwards for continuing to collect his salary while facing such serious charges, especially at a time when other employees have been going through redundancy procedures and faced below-inflation pay rises. He was one of the BBC’s highest-paid stars at the time of his departure from the organisation, having just signed a new contract on a salary of £435,000.

The BBC board strongly backed Davie’s handling of the incident and shifted the blame to Edwards. They said Davie and his team did what they could, given contractual obligations to the newsreader and what was known by the BBC at that time.

They said: “Today, the board has authorized the executive to seek the return of salary paid to Mr Edwards from the time he was arrested in November last year. Mr Edwards pleaded guilty to an appalling crime. Had he been upfront when asked by the BBC about his arrest, we would never have continued to pay him public money. “He has clearly undermined trust in the BBC and brought us into disrepute.”

They also announced that the board had commissioned an independent review that would “make recommendations on practical steps that could strengthen a workplace culture in line with BBC values.”

The statement continued: “While the nature of the charges against Mr Edwards is related to his own personal life, the board believes these events have also put a spotlight on the question of power imbalances in the workplace. We remain concerned about the potential for inappropriate workplace behavior, particularly in creative and editorial environments. While challenges related to power imbalances in the workplace are a challenge for multiple employers, the BBC must hold itself to the highest standards.”

The BBC is bracing itself for further questions about Davie’s handling of the incident when parliament returns in September, with the director general expected to face questions from the new Conservative-led Commons culture select committee.

The culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, said she would not intervene in the corporation’s operations but she had spoken to the BBC chair, Shamir Shah, to discuss the Edwards case. She said: “BBC staff must be able to feel safe in the workplace and be confident that if non-editorial complaints are raised they will be acted upon and dealt with fairly and decisively.”