British government backs the BBC as Trump sues it for billions

And he said of the BBC: “I think the broader argument that they were making — they are right to stick by their guns on that. And I hope that they will continue to do so as an independent organization, of course, funded by the license fee — a hugely important institution.”

The lawsuit, filed in Miami on Monday, complains that the BBC “maliciously” spliced together two comments Trump made more than 54 minutes apart in order to convey the impression that he’d urged his supporters to engage in violence as electoral votes were set to be tabulated by the U.S. Congress.

The BBC apologized to Trump last month, but argued that the claim from Trump did not provide a basis for a defamation suit. Concerns about how the speech was edited were raised in a leaked internal BBC memo. The BBC’s director general, Tim Davie, and its head of news, Deborah Turness both resigned over the broadcaster’s handling of the case.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is already under some domestic pressure to raise the defamation case directly with the U.S. president.

Ed Davey, the centrist Liberal Democrat leader, said Starmer needs to “stand up for the BBC against Trump’s outrageous legal threat and protect licence fee payers from being hit in the pocket.”

The BBC is funded through a mandatory annual payment to watch television, and BBC online content, in the U.K.