Inside BBC Strictlys Krishnan Guru-Murthys suspension from Channel 4 after off-air slip up

Krishnan Guru-Murthy is best known for being the lead presenter of Channel 4 News, but he's switched news reading for sequins and jazz hands on this year's series of Strictly Come Dancing.

The journalist, 53, is competing on the BBC One show with professional dancer Lauren Oatley, with the pair so far impressing both the judges and viewers with their performances.

Krishnan has worked as a news anchor for Channel 4 since 1998, but in October 2022 he was taken off air for one week after TV bosses made the decision to suspend him following an offensive comment he made after interviewing MP Steve Baker.

A clip of the incident went viral on social media last year, which showed Krishnan calling Steve a "c***" outside 10 Downing Street. He had interviewed Steve moments before.

In a 20-second snippet from the stream, the camera is pointing a police officer who is standing guard outside 10 Downing Street following Suella Braverman's resignation as Home Secretary.

It is not clear if Krishnan was aware his mic was still on, but he can be hard saying off-camera: "Thanks a lot, Steve."

The MP's respsonse cannot be heard, but Krishnan then continues: "It wasn't a stupid question, Steve, you know it. I'm very happy to go up against you on Truss any day." Krishnan then added: "What a c**t."

After the incident, Krishnan issued an apology on Twitter, writing: "After a robust interview with Steve Baker MP I used a very offensive word in an unguarded moment off air.

"While it was not broadcast that word in any context is beneath the standards I set myself and I apologise unreservedly. I have reached out to Steve Baker to say sorry."

He was suspended for a week after the comment and Channel 4 said he had breached its code of conduct. Channel 4 released a statement at the time, which read: “Channel 4 has a strict code of conduct for all its employees, including its programming teams and on-air presenters, and takes any breaches seriously.

“Following an off-air incident, Channel 4 News anchor Krishnan Guru-Murthy has been taken off air for a week.”

Meanwhile Steve spoke out about Krishnan's comment in an interview with Times Radio. He said: “I had an interview earlier with a journalist I don’t have a great deal of regard for who I felt was misrepresenting the situation through the construction of his question, which I called out, I think live on air, or I thought it was a pre-record."

Steve continued: “And he clearly didn’t like that, quite right, too. But I’d be quite honest, I spent a long time live on air, calling him out on his conduct as a journalist and glad to do so any time.

“But it’s most unfortunate that he’s sworn on air like that. If it’s in breach of his code of conduct, I do hope they sack him – it would be a service to the public.”

Following the interview, Steve then responded to Krishnan's tweet and accepted his apology.

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