Former BBC Leicester journalist Ian Stringer employment tribunal rules on ‘unfair dismissal’ claims

A former BBC Leicester journalist has lost an employment tribunal after claiming he was unfairly dismissed by the corporation for whistleblowing. Ian Stringer also claimed he suffered unfair treatment, saying he was treated differently to other BBC stars such as Gary Lineker.

Mr Stringer was employed as a sports journalist at BBC Radio Leicester following a spell on BBC’s The Apprentice in 2008. He was suspended in 2021 and sacked the following year after concerns were raised about his use of social media and failure to declare cars. it had been “endowed” and later promoted online.

Mr Stringer claimed the move amounted to unfair dismissal and claimed he was “marginalised” compared to other BBC stars such as Gary Lineker, who promoted and endorsed goods online. However, employment judge Kimbra Welch rejected the comparison, saying Mr Stringer was “not in comparable circumstances” to the Match of the Day host.

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During the court, held in Leicester, Mr Stringer was heard to claim that the BBC’s investigation into his actions was “flawed”. BBC bosses initially found he had made unwarranted “shout-outs” to a number of commercial companies that breached the BBC’s impartiality rules.

Mr Stringer said such a judgment showed he had been “treated differently” and “inconsistently” to other BBC staff who used social media in similar ways. Judge Welch disagreed, saying all the investigations were “reasonable” and that there were no parallels with other staff, others who had correctly told BBC bosses about the gifts they had received and subsequently promoted. She found that sacking Mr Stringer in 2022 was a “reasonable response” in light of allegations of misconduct against him.

Before he was suspended, Mr Stringer privately revealed to managers that his manager had forced another journalist to “come on a gift show” despite being in contact with someone who had Covid-19 – which would then have been a violation of the government. instructions. The former Leicester City commentator claimed his whistleblowing also played a part in his subsequent dismissal, but this was rejected by Judge Welch.

In her report, she said the reason for the dismissal was related to the conduct and that disclosing it to bosses was “not part” of the subsequent job loss. She said automatic unfair dismissal claims on these grounds “must fail”.

Judge Kimbra also found that Mr Stringer had not been subjected to “prejudice” by his bosses at the BBC and that any comparison with other BBC employees and their use of social media was “materially different” to his case. “All claims” against the corporation were dismissed.

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