Danny Baker: Police investigating royal baby tweet that led DJ to be sacked by BBC
Comedian apologised after posting picture of chimpanzee in response to birth of Harry and Meghan’s first child
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Police have launched an investigation into Danny Baker’s tweet about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s baby, which resulted in the DJ losing his job.
Baker was sacked from BBC Radio 5 Live after sharing a photograph featuring a chimpanzee alongside the caption: “Royal baby leaves hospital”.
The tweet was posted on Wednesday, the same day Harry and Meghan appeared for the first time in public with their newborn son, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor.
Scotland Yard said the force had received an allegation in relation to a tweet posted on 8 May.
“An allegation has been received by the Metropolitan Police Service on Thursday May 9 in relation to a tweet published on May 8,” the Met said.
“As is routine, the allegation will be reviewed and assessed by specialist officers.”
On Friday, Baker said he wanted to “formally apologise for the outrage I caused” following “one of the worst days of my life”.
He said: “I chose the wrong photo to illustrate a joke. Disastrously so.
“In attempting to lampoon privilege and the news cycle I went to a file of goofy pictures and saw the chimp dressed as a Lord and thought, ‘That’s the one!’
“Had I kept searching I might have chosen General Tom Thumb or even a baby in a crown. But I didn’t. God knows I wish had.
“Minutes later I was alerted by followers that this royal baby was of course mixed race and waves of panic and revulsion washed over me.”
Following a backlash and accusations of racism, he deleted the post and apologised.
On Thursday, Baker, 61, insisted he was no “downbeat racist wretch” after he was sacked for what his bosses described as a “serious error of judgment”.
He went on to attack BBC chiefs for their handling of the situation and said he was trying to make a point about class.
But, speaking to journalists outside his London home, he said it was “weaselly for the BBC to chuck us under the bus“.
He revealed that he ended his “lecture” from his bosses “with two very old fashioned Anglo-Saxon words”.
Additional reporting by PA