BBC staff who were part of a Pride group were among those who lodged complaints about Martine Croxall’s response to a script referring to ‘pregnant people’.
The newsreader was introducing a news bulletin in June this year when she changed the autocue from ‘pregnant people’ to ‘women’ live on air and raised her eyebrow at the gender-neutral language.
Many came out in support of Ms Croxall online, including news bosses and author JK Rowling.
And there was a backlash after the corporation’s Executive Complaints Unit upheld complaints suggsting she broke BBC rules and that her facial expression suggested a ‘controversial view about trans people’.
Ms Croxall has now been receiving support online, with some branding the BBC a ‘disgrace’ for reprimanding her.
Now it has emerged that a significant number of the 428 complaints received by the BBC came from members of staff there themselves, the Times has reported.
Many are believed to have come from pro-trans voices within the organisation, as well as from members of the BBC Pride staff group. although they are not thought to have formed part of the final 20 complaints that were upheld by the ECU.
A BBC insider from the news division told the Times that the ECU ruling highlighted a notably influence of pro-trans voices within the BBC.
Martine Croxall (pictured as she was made to say ‘pregnant people’) is one of the main presenters of BBC News, having started work for the broadcaster more than 30 years ago, in 1991, and for its news programme in 2001
Martine Croxall, arriving at the Central London Employment Tribunal, before a case over pay was settled by the BBC
They said: ‘Complaints came in about Martine from members of the BBC Pride staff group. There is an acceptance that they have captured the BBC.’
The ruling against Croxall over her reaction to the script – understood to have been written at speed from a press release by an under-pressure junior producer – was described by the insider as ‘Orwellian’.
‘How have we reached a point where a woman’s expression has become a face crime,’ they added.
In response, MP Rosie Duffield told GB News: ‘Obviously it’s super important to represent gay people, trans people, everyone across the spectrum, and it’s important that we do that in an unbiased way. But I think this is something very different. It feels really sinister, it feels like this Orwellian policing of ordinary speech.’
She added: ‘As a woman, she presumably found it very insulting having to say ”pregnant people”, which we all know is a completely ridiculous, fabricated term. She did what I think most people would do, and for that she’s been reprimanded. It’s just bizarre.’
Investigative journalist James Esses wrote on social media platform X: ‘In June, a BBC teleprompter instructed presenter, Martine Croxall, to say ”pregnant people”.
‘Today, the BBC has announced that she broke the rules because of her ”facial expression”. Our national broadcaster is a disgrace.’
Discussing the complaint against Ms Croxall, Women’s rights campaigner Maya Forstater said: ‘You say journalists should put their hand up, but when they do that’s what happens.’
Ms Rowling reposted the clip on X, captioning it: ‘I have a new favourite BBC presenter’
Ms Croxall’s message for supporters after she was praised for rejecting gender-neutral language live on air
This week the ECU upheld complaints from 20 viewers saying Ms Croxall had fallen ‘short of the BBC’s expectations of its presenters and journalists in relation to impartiality’.
Ms Croxall was introducing new research on the number of heat-related deaths expected amid Britain’s current heatwave.
But as the autocue prompted her to warn ‘pregnant people’ to take care in the heat, she first read the term out before overriding it, with a smirk and eyebrow raise.
She said: ‘Malcolm Mistry, who was involved in the research, said the aged, pregnant people – women! – and those with pre-existing health conditions need to take precautions.’
Her correction of the autocue won her praise from the Harry Potter author, who called Ms Croxall her ‘new favourite BBC presenter’.
JK Rowling’s approval coincided with Ms Croxall’s following on X jumping from 56,000 to 127,000 – and doubled in the first 24 hours after she changed her BBC script.
Ms Croxall thanked JK Rowling and her other supporters following the extraordinary TV moment.
‘A huge thank you to everyone who has chosen to follow me today for whatever reason. It’s been quite a ride,’ the married mother-of-two wrote.
She posted a picture of herself this week smiling into the camera with her colleague Sally Bundock sitting behind the newsdesk as the duo prepared to go live on air
BBC bosses had backed Ms Croxall, saying her reaction was ‘to scripting which somewhat clumsily incorporated phrases from the press release accompanying the research, including ‘aged’, which is not BBC style, and ‘pregnant people’, which did not match what Dr Mistry said in the clip which followed’.
However, the ECU said: ‘Even accepting this explanation, however, the ECU considered the facial expression which accompanied the change of ‘people’ to ‘women’ laid it open to the interpretation that it indicated a particular viewpoint in the controversies currently surrounding trans identity, and the congratulatory messages Ms Croxall later received on social media, together with the critical views expressed in the complaints to the BBC and elsewhere, tended to confirm that the impression of her having expressed a personal view was widely shared across the spectrum of opinion on the issue.’
The ECU said its finding had been reported to BBC management and discussed with Ms Croxall and the editorial team.
Ms Croxall has supported women on TV before – and behind the scenes also stood up with female colleagues in their fight for equal pay at the corporation.
Famously she also got tough with a transgender wannabe politician who said she felt attacked when Ms Croxall questioned her claim that the Supreme Court’s April ruling that trans women are legally male and trans men are legally female might need further ‘clarification’.
In April the broadcaster was praised when she challenged a transgender activist who claimed the Supreme Court’s ruling that the definition of a woman is based on biological sex may still need ‘clarification’.
The BBC veteran firmly told ex-Labour MSP candidate Heather Herbert that the landmark ruling made it clear ‘sex is binary and immutable’.
Leicestershire-born Ms Croxall repeatedly challenged Herbert after she called for further ‘clarification’ on single sex spaces, at one point reminding her: ‘The ruling is that woman means biological sex.’
She spearheaded a legal case against the BBC over pay, with the corporation settling. Ms Croxall, Karin Giannone, Kasia Madera and Annita McVeigh launched an employment tribunal against the BBC in a bombshell case, which included the claim they had not been paid equally compared with their male counterparts.
All four claimed they lost their roles on the BBC News Channel following a ‘rigged’ recruitment exercise when it was merged with BBC World. The case was settled by the BBC in the spring of this year.
The row meant the women were all off for 12 months, which Ms Croxall chronicled on social media. Instead of being in the studio she enjoyed trips to Mexico, Bulgaria and Thailand.
Ms Croxall joined the corporation in 1991 following work experience with her local station, BBC Radio Leicester.
She grew up in the countryside, attending an independent school before graduating from the University of Leeds.
In 2022, she was briefly taken off air after breaking the corporation’s impartiality rules.
Ms Croxall was informed by bosses about the ECU decision this week and remains on air.
When contacted for comment the BBC said they had nothing to add to the ruling.
