Mark Thompson accuses Lord Patten of misleading MPs over severance deals
Mark Thompson, the former director general of the BBC, has accused Lord Patten, chair of the BBC Trust, of ‘fundamentally misleading’ MP's over severance deals for top executives.
At a Commons select committee hearing earlier in the year Patten said he was ‘shocked’ at the number of large payoffs doled out to departing managers which were in excess of that stipulated by their contracts.
Hitting back Thompson, now chief executive of the New York Times, said that the evidence presented to MP's was ‘false’ and that Patten had been ‘fully briefed’ about such payments.
His comments came in a 25 page written response as Thompson prepares for his own grilling from MP's on the Public Accounts Committee over the affair.
Thompson’s evidence states: “The picture painted for the PAC by the BBC Trust witnesses on July 10 2013 was – in addition to specific untruths and inaccuracies – fundamentally misleading about the extent of Trust knowledge and involvement.
“The insinuation that they were kept in the dark by me or anyone else is false.”