The resignation of BBC director general Tim Davie and news CEO Deborah Turness follows a dossier written by Michael Prescott, and sent to the BBC board.

Prescott was an independent adviser to the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines and Standards Board for three years, before leaving in June.

The wide-ranging dossier was leaked to the Daily Telegraph. In it, Prescott says:

"One week before polling day [in 2024], the BBC aired an hour-long Panorama special called: Trump: A Second Chance?

"I watched the programme and found it to be neither balanced nor impartial – it seemed to be taking a distinctly anti-Trump stance...

"I raised my concerns at the EGSC and David Grossman [the senior editorial adviser to the committee] was asked to review the programme.

"He concluded the main contributors to the documentary were heavily weighted against Trump, with just one supporter against ten who questioned his fitness for office.

"Worse still, David highlighted alarming concerns about how Panorama had edited Trump’s speech to his supporters on January 6, 2021, the day of the Capitol Hill riot.

"Examining the charge that Trump had incited protesters to storm Capitol Hill, it turned out that Panorama had spliced together two clips from separate parts of his speech.

"This created the impression that Trump said something he did not and, in doing so, materially misled viewers."

Prescott's dossier also raised concerns about other areas of BBC output - including coverage of trans issues, and the war in Gaza.

In the introduction to his dossier, Prescott says: "What motivated me to prepare this note is despair at inaction by the BBC Executive when issues come to light.

"On no other occasion in my professional life have I witnessed what I did at the BBC with regard to how management dealt with (or failed to deal with) serious recurrent problems."