Carol Vorderman has reflected on her exit from the BBC last year due to the corporation’s strict guidelines around impartiality and social media.
In recent history, the Countdown host has become as known for her political commentary as she has her TV work, famously leaving her long-running BBC Wales radio show rather than censoring her political takedowns online.
“I’ve ultimately found that I’m not prepared to lose my voice on social media, change who I am, or lose the ability to express the strong beliefs I hold about the political turmoil this country finds itself in,” she said at the time.
“My decision has been to continue to criticise the current UK government for what it has done to the country which I love – and I’m not prepared to stop. I was brought up to fight for what I believe in, and I will carry on.
“Consequently I have now breached the new guidelines and BBC Wales management have decided I must leave. We each must make our decisions.”
In a new interview with Radio Times, Carol revealed that prior to her BBC Wales exit, she “tweeted out some stuff, knowing that I’d be in trouble for it”.
“Sure enough,” she claimed, she was “sacked within 24 hours” with “absolutely no conversation to be had”.
Hitting out at the BBC guidelines, Carol fumed: “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.”
She also pointed out that she unwaveringly followed Ofcom rules whenever she was on air, and “never, ever spoke about politics” on her show/
“This kind of ownership of what you’re allowed to be outside of that, is absolutely about restricting the freedom of people,” she said. “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?”
And despite her constant takedowns of the current government, Carol maintained: “I’ve never been a member of a political party. I was slated for working with David Blunkett to bring in the world’s first law to make grooming a child online a criminal act when he was Home Secretary. Then you go to the end of the 2000s, and I was working with Michael Gove on Maths education because he was the shadow Education Secretary.
“So I am politically independent. I vote for all parties other than the Conservatives.”
HuffPost UK has contacted the BBC for comment. A spokesperson for BBC Wales previously said: “Carol has been a presenter on BBC Radio Wales since 2018. We’d like to thank her for her work and contribution to the station over the past five years.”
After parting ways with the BBC, Carol later joined the on-air team at LBC, and telling Radio Times she’s “loving the freedom” her now role allows her.
She’s also continued to speak out against the Tories, including on social media and a recent appearance on Late Night Lycett, when she pulled zero punches on how the government has – in her words – turned everything “to shit”.
Read Carol Vorderman’s full interview in the new issue of Radio Times, on sale now.
