Jeremy Vine viewers have been left up in arms after Friday’s show, thanks to a discussion about BBC newsreader Martin Croxall’s recent rule-breaking.
In June, Ms Croxall prompted 20 complaints to the BBC after she changed the term “pregnant people” to “women” live on-air while reading from an autocue about a heatwave warning.
Jeremy Vine: Not a single member of the panel argued against Ms Croxall’s ruling
|
C5
The BBC, which initially stood by Ms Croxall at the time, has since come under fire from a number of licence fee payers for the U-turn, with many using social media to blast the ECU’s ruling.
However, Channel 5 viewers expecting to see both sides of the argument during Friday’s Jeremy Vine were left disappointed as panellists Saira Khan and Owen Jones both agreed Ms Croxall was in the wrong.
Mr Vine introduced the discussion after watching a clip of the BBC News moment: “Oh lordy, she had the phrase ‘pregnant people’ on the autocue and she’s not happy with that, so she says ‘women,’ because only women can be pregnant, which gets us into the whole trans thing, because someone might be pregnant but be a trans man. Right?
“And the point about this is the BBC editorial unit has now said that was a breach of impartiality. What do you think?”
Jeremy Vine: Owen Jones backed the BBC’s decision
|
C5
Mr Jones was first up: “Well, she’s quoting someone by the way, so she changed someone’s quote. That was the person in question; it wasn’t the BBC, she was quoting someone. She changed their quote and she made clear—”
“Explain their quote,” Mr Vine pressed, to which the hard-left activist continued: “Well, she made clear her position; everyone could work out her stance on that particular issue.
“The point about being a BBC presenter is basically impartial. Look, I have a friend called Freddie McConnell, he’s a trans man, he gave birth, people should watch his documentary Seahorse.”
“He’s the guy who worked at The Guardian?” Mr Vine asked, to which Mr Jones confirmed: “He is. He’s a brilliant, brilliant guy. Now, people like that feel that they are treated with huge disrespect.
Jeremy Vine: Saira Khan hit out at Ms Croxall
|
C5
“He’s a man, he sees himself as a man, he doesn’t want to be called a woman. Now, she can have her views, that’s up to her, but if she’s a BBC presenter, the audience needs to have confidence, whoever they are, that that’s just neutral.”
Mr Vine attempted to offer a counterargument, however: “A Supreme Court has ruled that your biological sex is your sex.
“So, your friend, he is a great person and a lovely man, and let’s make sure we don’t misattribute any words, however he wants to be described, but at the end of the day, Martine is right on the facts, correct?”
Mr Jones repeated: “Again, she misquoted someone, she changed their quote, and just because something’s the law doesn’t mean therefore it’s no longer an opinion.”
Jeremy Vine tried to offer a counterargument
|
C5
Ms Khan then interjected: “People like Gary Lineker were removed from the BBC because of their personal opinions, okay?
“Now, if you work for the BBC and you’re reading an autocue and it’s been agreed you’ve got to read the autocue, you can’t just start putting your own personal opinions in there because that is — you have guidelines and they’re editorial guidelines. If you don’t want to follow them, then don’t work for the BBC.”
Mr Vine argued: “But she was, I’m guessing here, I don’t know the situation, I haven’t spoken to her, she was affronted by the use of the word ‘people’ instead of ‘women,’ that’s all.”
An unwavering Mr Jones fired back: “She can have that opinion and on social media afterwards people like JK Rowling congratulated her, but that fed into the whole point, which was she expressed something which people politically on that side of the argument agreed with, but other people don’t — including trans people — and trans people pay their licence fee as well, and they have the right to not think that they’re being (victimised).”
“But you’re reading the news for the BBC, that’s an impartial organisation, it’s supposed to be,” Ms Khan chipped in.
“Yeah, but people get things wrong in the autocue, you don’t read them out if they’re wrong,” Mr Vine tried to argue, but he was promptly shut down by Mr Jones: “Yeah, but again, she was quoting someone.”
In the end, Mr Vine brought the discussion to a close by saying: “I think we’ll call that a score draw at the vote.”
Before long, social media was awash with complaints from Channel 5 viewers who were left fuming with the seeming imbalance of the debate, as well as the arguments put forward by Mr Jones, in particular.
On X, one viewer fumed: “The responses from the panel there highlight why the Vine show is rubbish. Not one of them thinks that misrepresenting the truth is worth pointing out if luvvies… can’t deal with it. Truth is too important to be glossed over like this.”
“Jones quotes ‘should be neutral’ when it suits. Hypocrite!” a second blasted before a third raged: “Owen Jones is an idiot. Martine Croxall is obviously a lady with her head properly secured.”
Elsewhere, a fourth slammed: “The BBC should lose its broadcasting licence over this ruling, if only until the senior management are all sacked. As for Owen Jones, he’s just the same idiot he’s always been.”
The complaints kept coming over on Facebook, too. “The second something ridiculous pops up, there’s Owen Jones to defend it,” one user fumed before a second echoed: “Who are these people on your panel? No wonder the country’s in the state it is!”
“Just because something’s the law doesn’t mean it’s no longer an opinion.”@owenjonesjourno says the BBC was right to uphold a complaint against a newsreader who corrected ‘pregnant people’ to ‘women’ because it violated impartiality.
Saira Khan | @theJeremyVine | #JeremyVine pic.twitter.com/ILjrfYT2Ib
— Jeremy, Storm & Vanessa On 5 (@JeremyVineOn5) November 7, 2025
“Left-wing lunacy,” a third simply typed, while a fourth took aim at Mr Jones: “I wouldn’t expect anything else from Jones, he’s about as left wing as you can get!”
However, there were a few who backed the panellists’ stance on the matter. “You have one job to do, and that is to read the auto cue. Whatever her opinion on the matter, her position as a newsreader is to stick to the script in front of her,” one Facebook user hit back.
And another felt the debate itself wasn’t worthy of airtime: “Ffs … Jeremy must seriously be running out of things to talk about.” (sic)
Ms Croxall is yet to address the ruling, but did return to BBC News on Friday morning.