A decision to allow Nick Robinson to host Radio 4’s Today programme the morning after the general election alongside John Humphrys has prompted complaints within the presenting team – and even accusations of sexism.
Sarah Montague, the second longest serving presenter of the flagship show and, for a long time, the only woman, is understood to be one of two presenters to complain to BBC bosses about the all-male line up for 9 June after being snubbed for one of the most important slots of the year.
Two of the show’s team of five presenters have accused Robinson of “uncollegiate” behaviour after he demanded to present the show the day after the election, breaking an unwritten rule that the on-air line-up should not be men only.
Mishal Husain, who become the second female host when she joined in 2013, is to appear on TV on the night of the election in coverage hosted by David Dimbleby, and so was unavailable for 9 June. The fifth presenter, Justin Webb, a former BBC North America editor, has largely focused on foreign affairs coverage although this week he has broadcast from Bath.
The row dates back to last year’s referendum and broke into the open on the first day in the job for Today’s new editor, Sarah Sands, who joined from the Evening Standard. She arrives at a time when Robinson is vying to become the programme’s lead political interviewer, a role held by Humphrys, who has spent the past 30 years on the breakfast show.
Robinson’s demands come after he was pushed off the presenting line-up on 24 June last year, the day after the EU referendum. He had been due to present the show alongside Montague – their names had even appeared in the Radio Times - but was at a relatively late point replaced by Humphrys, who was unhappy about being left out.
Last year, in an interview with The Times magazine, Humprhys admitted that he wrote a resignation email to BBC bosses in “a fit of anger”. He declined to say why but insiders have since suggested that it was the fact that he’d been left out of the referendum lineup.
“The absolute truth .... [is that I did] pen something, and didn’t in the end [resign] because it was pre-empted,” he told the Times. “It was something about which there was a certain amount of tension and I felt fairly strongly. And that was that.”
Having told the Times in 2016 that he would not cover another general election as “it’s unlikely I’ll be there in three years” this poll could be the last for 73-year-old Humphrys.
Robinson is understood to have sought assurances that he would host the post-election programme.
A BBC spokesman said that Montague, who joined the show 15 years ago, would present several programmes in the run-up to the election, including one dedicated to the NHS next week. She has also interviewed Jeremy Corbyn and the former US defence secretary, Ash Carter, in recent months.
Robinson, however, interviewed Philip Hammond after the budget and Theresa May after she called the snap election.
The spokesman pointed out that other women including the BBC’s political editor, Laura Kuenssberg, and Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis, will also have key roles.
An on-air altercation with Montague over the thermostat in the Today studio led Humphrys to write a telling feature about the atmosphere between presenters forced to share the stage in the show most listened to by the establishment.
Describing Montague’s predecessor, Sue Macgregor, the first full-time female presenter, as “fiercely competitive”, he said: “The fact is we are competitors in one of the most competitive sports of all and a live studio is our arena – with the audience giving the emperor’s thumbs up - or down. How can it be otherwise?”
He went on to welcome Robinson: “He will be no stranger to competitive environments. If a live radio studio is an arena, the press room in the Palace of Westminster is a bear pit.”