The director general of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has opted to resign after a row regarding the editing of a speech that was made by US President Donald Trump on the day of the 2021 attack on the US Capitol.

Sunday’s joint resignations saw Tim Davie and the head of news, Deborah Turness, cap a turbulent week of accusations that the broadcaster edited a speech Trump rolled out on January 6, 2021, to make it seem as if he encouraged the riots that followed his defeat in the 2020 presidential election.

Davie said he took ultimate responsibility for the mistakes made and added that quitting this role at the helm of the public broadcaster after five years was entirely his decision.

‘I have been reflecting on the very intense and personal and professional demands of managing this role over many years in these febrile times, combined with the fact that I want to give a successor time to help shape the charter plans they will be delivering’- he continued.

A documentary by flagship programme Panorama aired one week before last year’s US elections, splicing together clips of Trump’s speech uttered at various points.

The edits made it appear that Trump mentioned the following: ‘We are going to walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you, and we’ll fight. We fight like hell!’ Critics called it out as misleading and mentioned how it cut out a section where Trump said he wanted supporters to demonstrate in a peaceful way.