Carol Vorderman has revealed she was “sacked within 24 hours” of breaking the BBC’s strict guidelines on social media.
The outspoken broadcaster, who now hosts a show on LBC radio, didn’t like being told what she was allowed to say when the beeb brought in new rules for its employees in September last year. The crackdown was an attempt to stop high-profile presenters, such as BBC Sport star Gary Lineker , expressing strong political views online.
Though Carol had hosted a radio show on BBC Radio Wales for four years, which she “loved”, the 63-year-old said she was given the boot hours after “tweeting some stuff, knowing that I’d be in trouble” in November 2023.
It came after “political independent” Carol - who says she votes for all parties “other than the Conservatives” - began regularly calling out the government on social media, once referring to them as "a lying bunch of greedy, corrupt, destructive, hateful, divisive, gaslighting crooks".
In a new interview with the Radio Times, Carol gave more detail on what happened six months ago. She said: “They [BBC] said, ‘social media guidelines are such and such, you can’t say this, you’re not allowed to say that. You can’t do this, you can’t do that. So I tweeted some stuff knowing that I’d be in trouble for it. And sure enough, absolutely no conversation to be had, sacked within 24 hours. The BBC are the only organisation who impose what you can do when you’re not broadcasting. Your private, non-broadcast opinion is meant to be... very quiet, let’s say.”
Though Carol is “loving the freedom” her new LBC show gives her, she still has to follow Ofcom rules when she is on air, and abided by when she was at the BBC. Speaking of her time at the beeb, she said she “never ever spoke about politics” during her “light entertainment show” and didn’t appreciate being silenced when she wasn’t on the airwaves.
She added: “The people at the top of the BBC – Conservatives – are trying to restrict what people do in their private lives. It’s an absolute nonsense... this kind of ownership of what you’re allowed to be outside of that is absolutely about restricting the freedom of people. There’s a lot that doesn’t make the papers. It’s not just me, and it’s ironic isn’t it, that I’m the only one that’s been sacked.”
In a message to fans after she was shown the door, Carol posted on social media: "From my heart, thank you for your overwhelming support today. Just bowled over by it. You're so wonderful, genuinely thank you.” She then promised to “increase calling out this disgusting Tory govt with facts & data which the right wing media fails to publish #StrongTogether ."
Last week she continued her rants about the Conservatives by speaking out furiously against the government during an appearance on Late Night Lycett. The Countdown queen said she had used her maths skills to calculate how much the Tories have added to the national debt since they came to power under David Cameron .
She told the Channel 4 show: "I did a few numbers, earlier in the year they’d been in power for 5,000 days since David Cameron became PM in January… but I calculated how much they had added to the national debt every day for 5,000 days, and it was over £300 million a day, for 5,000 days, where’s all the money gone?"
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