Blair told: butt out of BBC

Tony Blair will be told to "butt out" of BBC affairs this week after it was revealed that John Birt, the corporation's former director-general, admitted he had enlisted the Prime Minister to help him stop plans for a separate Scottish flagship news programme.

The Sunday Herald's revelation that Birt invited political interference from Whitehall, including several cabinet ministers, to thwart BBC Scotland's plans for a Scottish Six o'clock news, covering Scottish, UK and international stories, has sparked fury within the corporation. A senior executive at BBC Scotland said yesterday: "The Birt story has driven a coach and horses through the integrity of the BBC."

Sir Christopher Bland, the chairman of the BBC governors at the time of the 1998 row over the Scottish Six plans, has turned on Birt in public, saying "his apocalyptic view of what would happen if a Scottish Six was established was not shared by the governors, and least of all by me".

However, he justifies the decision taken four years ago not to go with the idea, saying: "It was appropriate, three times a day, to reflect the world to the United Kingdom, and the differing parts of the United Kingdom to itself."

Birt's anti-Scottish conspiracy, reported in the Sunday Herald, also met with the incredulity of one of the BBC's top journalists. Jeremy Paxman, senior presenter of Newsnight, said he was "absolutely astonished. It's extraordinary that editorial decisions should be handed out to political figures. I find it amazing."

Alex Salmond, the Scottish National Party leader at Westminster who had challenged Bland on his role, is to take up the issue with the Prime Minister at the start of the new Westminster session on Wednesday. He said: "We'll be turning up the heat on Blair, tabling a series of questions demanding answers on his involvement in stopping the Scottish Six last time and demanding assurances that he will butt out of the process this time," said a spokesman.

That process, which will involve a review of BBC Scotland's news and current affairs output after next year's election, is to focus more strongly than before on what the audience wants, according to the corporation's Scottish controller John McCormick. He said this weekend that he still believes in the principle of the Scottish Six, bringing news and the BBC closer to its audience. But he said the review will look at what viewers and listeners think of the coverage they get before reaching a decision.

Sir Robert Smith, the BBC's Scottish governor and chairman of the Broadcasting Council for Scotland, which unanimously backed the Scottish Six plan in 1998, said: "We will not be phoning Number 10 for help. The Scottish Six is a small part of the review. We will look at the whole of our news and current affairs output, particularly the coverage of Holyrood."

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