BBC host Fiona Bruce quits charity role amid domestic violence backlash

dailyrecord.co.uk:

BBC Question Time host Fiona Bruce has announced she will be stepping back from her role as an ambassador for the UK's leading charity on domestic violence Refuge.It comes following claims the BBC journalist trivialised domestic violence during a discussion about former Prime Minister Boris Johnson's dad Stanley on last Thursday’s episode of the BBC political debate show.According to reports in The Mirror, Fiona, 58, had faced calls to be removed from her position as an ambassador for the domestic abuse charity, after she appeared to play down Stanley Johnson's history of violence against his then-wife Charlotte, who died in 2021.During Question Time on Thursday, journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown described Johnson as a wife beater.Fiona replied: "Stanley Johnson’s wife spoke to a journalist, Tom Bower, and she said Stanley Johnson had broken her nose and she had ended up in hospital as a result."Stanley Johnson has not commented publicly on that.

Friends of his have said it did happen, it was a one-off."In a new statement, Fiona has now insisted she was a “passionate advocate” for survivors of domestic abuse and said she had been subject to a “social media storm” which “mischaracterised” her words.Fiona said: “I have been a passionate advocate and campaigner for all survivors of domestic abuse, and have used my privileged position as a woman in the public eye to bring this issue to the fore, notably in my work for over 25 years with Refuge. "But following the events of last week, I have faced a social media storm, much of which mischaracterised what I said and took the form of personal abuse directed at me.“The only people that matter in all this are the survivors, they are my priority," she continued."The last thing in