A website has been launched promoting the BBC’s World Affairs Editor as a ‘corporate consultant’ seemingly in contravention of BBC guidelines on conflict of interest, we can reveal.
- A new website has promoted John Simpson as a ‘corporate consultant’
- It said the BBC veteran would use his ‘enviable network’ to ‘lay the groundwork for corporate activity’
- BBC guidelines demand that ‘everyone involved in editorial decisions and programme making is free from inappropriate outside commitments’
- Furious BBC employees said moonlighting for business clients was a serious conflict of interest but Simpson was ‘above the law’
- Simpson is understood to earn more than £800,000 a year at the BBC
- The web pages were deleted following our investigation
- Simpson’s agent claimed they had been made public by mistake and he had not ‘signed off’ on them
- The agent added Simpson has not done any corporate work to date
The website offered to use John Simpson’s ‘enviable network’ to ‘lay the groundwork for corporate activity’ and ‘assist clients in reaching their business goals’. Simpson is understood to earn more than £800,000 a year at the BBC.
His colleagues, many of whom resent his privileged pay package and position, are furious that Simpson appears to be moonlighting. One described him as ‘a law unto himself’ and ‘above the law’.
A senior journalist at BBC News, who did not want to be named, told us:
‘It’s an appalling breach of editorial policy guidelines which apply to everyone on air. On what planet is that not a serious conflict of interest? Anyone else would get sacked.’
Shelley Charlesworth, a former BBC broadcaster who worked for the corporation for 15 years, tweeted, ‘How is he able to set up consultancy while still being on BBC payroll?’
Several BBC journalists earn thousands giving after-dinner speeches, but it is rare for any to sell their expertise to corporate clients while remaining at the corporation.
Simpson’s agent said the journalist had not ‘signed off’ the services offered on his website, and claimed it was made public by mistake. Simpson has not yet taken on any corporate work, she said.
Yesterday, Simpson’s Twitter account tweeted the consultancy page of the site, accompanied by the remark, ‘I like my “shiny new website”’.
There is particular resentment at the timing of Simpson’s apparent website launch, coming amid controversy over high levels of pay awarded to BBC stars while the corporation is facing swingeing cuts.
In 2014, Simpson reportedly signed an unusually generous contract that effectively allowed him to work for the BBC for as long as he wanted. The Daily Mail reported that he earned more than £800,000 in 2008.
Simpson’s Twitter profile advertises the website. It was also promoted on his public Facebook page, which included pictures of the veteran correspondent relaxing at home with a cigar and a bottle of ‘fine wine’.
Today, the Facebook page seemed to have been removed.
Simpson’s agent, Gina Nelthorpe-Cowne, claimed that the website had ‘not been viewed or approved by John Simpson’, and was not meant to be ‘publicly accessible’.
Following our investigation, she had the web pages in question deleted.
When asked why the veteran journalist has repeatedly promoted his business website on social media, she said: ‘John Simpson is brand new to social media and still learning the ropes’.
This was apparently contradicted by a BBC spokesperson, who separately suggested that Simpson did not write his own tweets and did not know what was published on his website.
We asked if Simpson planned to launch a consultancy business; whether the BBC would investigate the apparent conflict of interest; and who ran Simpson’s Twitter and Facebook accounts.
In each case, the spokesperson declined to comment.
In an official statement, the spokesperson said: ‘We have strict guidelines to ensure the impartiality of our journalists which all BBC News staff must abide by’.
Simpson himself has not responded to our repeated attempts to contact him.
In the online publicity material, which has since been removed, the website boasted that Simpson has built up an ‘enviable network of international experts’ in the world of finance, communications and ‘couvert operations (sic)’.
Using this ‘network’, together with his ‘strong relationships with key media’, he offered ‘strategic media outreach to assist clients in reaching their business goals… laying the groundwork for corporate activity’ and providing access to ‘capital markets’.
Among the many services offered by the journalist was a proposal to assist companies in securing investment by providing ‘strategic advice building a narrative’.
Others included ‘enthralling’ after-dinner speeches, featuring ‘light-hearted and amusing tales from his extensive travels’.
BBC guidelines demand that ‘everyone involved in editorial decisions and programme making is free from inappropriate outside commitments’.
Under the section on conflicts of interest, the rules say: ‘The outside activities and interests of on-air talent need very careful consideration, particularly in relation to outside writing commitments, public appearances, endorsements of organisations and commercial advertising.’
Simpson’s website advertised the fact that the veteran reporter, who received a CBE in 1991, is ‘one of only two people to have been twice named the Royal Television Society’s Journalist of the year’.
It also pointed out that Simpson, 71, who has a 10-year-old son, holds the distinction of being the BBC’s youngest Political Editor and youngest Foreign Correspondent.
He has been World Affairs Editor since 1988, it said, and claimed he had reported from ‘125 countries across the globe, from 41 war zones’.
The site also stated that he has interviewed ‘numerous World (sic) leaders, some controversial, including Saddam Hussain, Osama Bin Laden, Nelson Mandela, Margaret Thatcher, Mikhail Gorbachev, Yasser Arafat, Colonel Gadhaffi (sic), Ayatollah Khomeini, Robert Mugabe and the Emperor Bokassa’.
This is not the first time that the distinguished journalist has been caught up in controversy. In 2012, he admitted placing his London house in a Bahamas company controlled by his wife, Dee Kruger, for the purposes of tax avoidance.
The arrangement, which exploited a loophole but was not illegal, allowed him to avoid paying inheritance tax or stamp duty when selling the home, which he bought for £1.85million in 2004.
When challenged by reporters at the time, he said he had decided to end the arrangement, stating ‘I pay rather a lot of tax’.
In 2014, he again made headlines when he told the Sun:
‘The BBC is even more grotesquely managed now than it was [60 years ago], with tough women running the place now… The BBC is such a nanny – and ghastly outfit.’
Simpson’s agent insisted that ‘John has not accepted or committed to a single consultancy position’ to date, and that he would only do so ‘with full approval from the BBC’.
She added: ‘The website is in a beta trial version currently and has not been viewed or approved by John Simpson.
‘Our understanding was that the website was on a testing server and not publicly accessible.
‘The text and categories were put in as holding pages by the web developer and are potentially in-factual (sic) and not yet approved.
‘We have been in touch with the developers and requested the site be removed from public domain until completed and signed off by John Simpson.’