BBC removes Laura Kuenssberg episode after complaint about Chris Packham comments

Laura Kuenssberg

An episode of Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg has been removed from iPlayer by the BBC after a complaint about Chris Packham’s view of a blog. Journalist Toby Young has claimed Mr Packham had made “false and defamatory” allegations about him during a panel debate about carbon emissions and extreme weather.

The Springwatch presenter dubbed Mr Young’s Daily Sceptic blog as the “Daily Septic” and alleged the website is “put together by a bunch of professionals with close affiliations to the fossil fuel industry”.

Ms Kuenssberg didn’t challenge the comments, with both she and BBC Politics tweeting a clip of the exchange on their X accounts. According to Mr Young, the BBC Politics’ clip was viewed more than 845,000 times.

Mr Young, writing in The Spectator, said the people who put the Daily Sceptic together “have no connections to the fossil fuel industry” and accused Mr Packham “and his allies” of inventing reasons to discredit opponents.

Fraser Nelson, Andrew Neil and Toby Young

He added: “I can’t help thinking Packham’s ‘devastating put-down’ would have been more effective if it had been true.”

The journalist complained to the BBC that neither he nor any of the other people who put the blog together have any affiliations to the fossil fuel industry, “close or otherwise”. He called the allegation “serious and damaging”, according to the Telegraph.

Mr Packham was debating climate change with Lib Dem MP Layla Moran and the former chair of Pizza Express, Luke Johnson, described by Mr Young as a “climate contrarian”.

The conservationist was arguing floods in Dubai were the result of carbon emissions. Mr Johnson challenged Mr Packham to provide evidence that CO2 was behind extreme weather.

People paddle a dinghy in flood waters in Dubai

It emerged on Thursday (April 25) that 10 percent to 40 percent more rain fell in the United Arab Emirates, Oman and parts of Saudi Arabia in one day last week than it would have done in a world without the 1.2C of warming since the mid-19th century, World Weather Attribution reported in a flash study yet to be peer-reviewed.

In a statement, the BBC said: “We received complaints from people unhappy Laura didn’t challenge a comment made by panel member Chris Packham regarding the Daily Sceptic.

“During a discussion with the panel about various issues including climate change, broadcaster and conservationist Chris Packham claimed that the Daily Sceptic, whose editor-in-chief is Toby Young, is ‘basically put together by a bunch of professionals with close affiliations to the fossil fuel industry’.

“We acknowledge we would ideally have asked him to present his evidence on this, but in a fast-moving live programme it’s not always possible to pick up on every point made by our guests. We’ve removed any posts on X with this part of the discussion.”