Martin Bashir news - live: PM says BBC must never repeat scandal as police consider criminal probe

A former Panorama producer has struck out at the BBC for its “generic” apology to whistleblowers and Princess Diana’s sons after the Dyson inquiry’s findings of its failings around its explosive 1995 interview.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Mark Killick said: “Let’s acknowledge that (BBC director-general) Tim Davey commissioned this report, and it was a brave thing to do - this didn’t happen on his watch.

“The BBC has published a generic apology and written to the princes, as I understand it, apologising.

“But actually let’s stepped back as well and remember many people, both on Princess Diana side of the line, and in the BBC, had their reputations destroyed by a smear campaign authorised by BBC senior management, and many of them lost their jobs.”

“I’m not going sure that a generic apology in the form of a press statement by the BBC is anything like adequate.”

Mr Killick said that he had been let go from from Panorama within 24 hours of raising concerns with senior leadership in the BBC in late 1995.

“I was told we only want the loyal people on the programme - I had been on Panorama for 10 years - and I was effectively let go,” he said.

“I bought the documents to the attention of the BBC management as I was asked to do by a BBC lawyer, and was told within 24 hours of doing that that effectively I would no longer be part of the programme,” he said.

“That is what happened to whistleblowers at that time,” he said.

Additional reporting by PA

The Lord Chancellor has said that statements put out by the Duke of Cambridge and his brother the Duke of Sussex following the release of a scathing report into the BBC’s 1995 Panorama interview with their mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, were “very striking indeed” and raised “some very serious questions” for the broadcaster

The brothers condemned the broadcaster’s actions after an inquiry led by Lord Dyson found the BBC had covered up “deceitful behaviour” used by journalist Martin Bashir to secure the interview.

Speaking on Sky News, Justice Secretary Robert Buckland said: “I thought both their statements were very striking indeed.”

“We’re not just talking about a much-loved national and international figure in the late Princess of Wales but a mother as well, and I think this came across, this sense of family sadness and tragedy,” he said. “And when you think about, if it was any family, the sort of behaviour that has been evidenced in this damning report raises some very serious questions indeed sadly for the BBC.”

Asked whether the BBC was due for a “complete overhaul” in light of the review, Mr Buckland said the Dyson report would need “careful consideration” and that the Government should take that up “soberly and calmly to see what, if anything, needs to be done to improve governance at the BBC”.

Prince Harry has expressed a fear of history repeating itself as he compared his mother being “chased to her death while she was in a relationship with someone that wasn’t white” to his relationship with Meghan Markle.

In an interview with Oprah Winfrey for a new Apple TV+ docuseries titledThe Me You Can’t See, Harry discusses the similarities between the difficulties he and the Duchess of Sussex have struggled with when it comes to the media to those his mother endured.

Full story here:

The Duke of Sussex has sat down for a second interview with Oprah Winfrey, this time discussing his personal mental health struggles and the importance of seeking help.

In a wide-ranging interview that forms a new docuseries airing on Apple TV+ titled The Me You Can’t See, he also discusses the loss of his mother, Princess Diana.

Read more here:

The Duke of Cambridge launched a scathing attack on the BBC over its failings in a Panorama interview with Diana, Princess of Wales, which he said fed into the “fear, paranoia and isolation” his mother suffered in the final years of her life.

Prince William said he felt “indescribable sadness” after learning of the findings of an independent inquiry, which concluded that journalist Martin Bashir committed a “serious breach” by using fake bank statements to gain the trust of Princess Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, and gain access to Diana for the interview.

The inquiry, led by Lord Dyson further found that the BBC covered up what it had learned about how Mr Bashir obtained the interview, falling “short of the high standards of integrity and transparency which are its hallmark”.

“What saddens me most, is that if the BBC had properly investigated the complaints and concerns first raised in 1995, my mother would have known that she had been deceived,” William said.

“She was failed not just by a rogue reporter, but by leaders at the BBC who looked the other way rather than asking the tough questions,” William asserted.

Read more on his reaction to the Dyson inquiry here:

Good morning and welcome to our live blog following the latest developments after an independent inquiry found “serious” breaches in the BBC’s handling of its explosive 1995 interview with Princess Diana.