Carol Vorderman leaves BBC Radio Wales show over new social media impartiality rules for presenters

Carol Vorderman has announced that she has left her Saturday morning BBC Radio Wales show after bosses decided "she must leave" for breaching new social media impartiality rules.

The former Countdown co-host, who is vocal on social media about her political views, said that bosses had explained to her that newly introduced guidelines for flagship presenters would apply to "all and any content that I post all year round". Vorderman said in a statement: "Since those non-negotiable changes to my radio contract were made, I’ve ultimately found that I’m not prepared to lose my voice on social media, change who I am, or lose the ability to express the strong beliefs I hold about the political turmoil this country finds itself in.

"My decision has been to continue to criticise the current UK Government for what it has done to the country which I love – and I’m not prepared to stop. I was brought up to fight for what I believe in, and I will carry on. Consequently I have now breached the new guidelines and BBC Wales management have decided I must leave. We each must make our decisions. I’m sad to have to leave the wonderful friends I’ve made at Radio Wales.

"I wish them, and all of our listeners, all the love in the world. We laughed a lot, and we will miss each other dearly."

The new rules around presenter impartiality when it comes to political views were introduced in September following a row over posts made by Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker in which he criticised the government's policy of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda to be processed, saying it was an "immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s". The new rules state that flagship non-news BBC presenters should be allowed to express their views on political issues and policies, but prohibits them from actively engaging with political campaigning online.