BBC chairman Samir Shah has vowed to stay in his job and “fix” the corporation’s problems, after facing more than three hours of questions from MPs over the crisis that cost the BBC its director general and head of news.

But the chair of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Dame Caroline Dinenage, said afterwards that she was not convinced the BBC board is in “safe hands”, describing Mr Shah’s evidence as “wishy washy”.

Shah: I will not walk away

Appearing before the committee on Monday, Mr Shah apologised for “the mistakes that have been made and the impact that has had” and admitted the BBC had been too slow to apologise over the editing of a Donald Trump speech in a Panorama programme.

“Looking back, I think we should have made the decision [to apologise] earlier,” he said. “I think there is an issue about how quickly we respond, the speed of our response.”

Asked whether he had considered resigning, he said: “My job now is to steady the ship, put it on even keel. I’m not somebody who walks away from a problem. I think my job is to fix it. That’s what I’m doing.”

He told MPs the search for a new director general had begun, with a job advert published shortly before Monday’s hearing, and said he would also like to create a deputy role because the top job is “too big for one person”. He added that he was “inclined” to restructure the BBC’s executive committee.

The Prescott memo and the Panorama edit

The crisis began with a leaked memo from Michael Prescott, a former external adviser to the BBC’s editorial standards committee, who told MPs that “systemic problems” in BBC News were getting worse, although he did not think the corporation was institutionally biased.

As well as the Panorama edit, his memo raised concerns about BBC Arabic’s coverage of the Israel-Gaza war and one-sided coverage of trans issues. Mr Prescott said he had grown frustrated after years of raising concerns and being met with denial by BBC managers.

The Panorama programme, broadcast a week before the 2024 US election, spliced together two clips from Mr Trump’s speech on 6 January 2021 so that he appeared to tell supporters: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”

The BBC later accepted the edit gave the impression of a direct call for violent action and apologised for what Mr Shah called an “error of judgement”. More than 500 complaints were received, and Mr Trump threatened the BBC with a billion-dollar legal claim.

MPs were told there had been a “continuing and sharp difference of opinion” between some board members and executives over what the apology should say. Board member Caroline Thomson said some board members felt the clip gave a “misleading impression”, while the news department had argued the edit was fair given the speech as a whole.

Board member denies coup claims

The committee also heard from BBC board member Sir Robbie Gibb, who dismissed claims of a politically-motivated “coup” at the top of the corporation as “ridiculous” and “complete nonsense”. Dame Caroline had noted that Sir Robbie had “come in for quite a lot of stick in the media” over claims he wielded right-wing bias to influence the board.

Mr Shah said he “applauded” Deborah Turness for doing the “honourable and proper” thing in stepping down as chief executive of news, but said he did not think “that meant that the director general had also to resign”.

“The board wishes that the director general had not resigned,” he said. “He had our full confidence throughout.” Tim Davie and Ms Turness resigned within hours of each other after the memo was leaked to the Daily Telegraph.

Committee chair: No sense of grip

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s The World Tonight after the hearing, Dame Caroline said there was “chaos at the heart of the BBC board” and “clearly some issues of governance”.

“Samir Shah didn’t really have any direct answers to some of the questions that we asked,” she said. “We were really looking for hard evidence that the BBC board are going to grip this. I’m not entirely convinced that they can and they will.”

She added: “I don’t think as a committee we were wildly enthused that the board is in safe hands.”

Leigh Journal and BBC News reported the hearing.