British Prime Minister David Cameron accused the BBC Monday of changing its story about Jimmy Savile as an editor who dropped an investigation into sex abuse claims against the late star stepped aside. Peter Rippon, editor of the BBC’s flagship current affairs programme Newsnight, became the first head to roll as a result of the growing accusations of a cover-up by the world’s largest public broadcaster. The BBC said a blog by Rippon, in which he explained why a show about Savile was dropped in December last year for editorial reasons, was “inaccurate or incomplete in some respects” and has been corrected. Cameron said the country was “appalled” by the growing claims against Savile, who with his jangling jewellery and shiny tracksuits was one of British television’s best-loved stars before his death last year aged 84. “The nation is appalled, we’re all appalled by the allegations of what Jimmy Savile did and they seem to get worse by the day,” Cameron told reporters. “The developments today are concerning because the BBC has effectively changed its story about why it dropped the Newsnight programme about Jimmy Savile.” The prime minister added that “serious questions” need to be answered by the two independent inquiries that the BBC has launched into the allegations about Savile. British police have launched a separate criminal investigation. The scandal has pitted the BBC against itself, with the broadcaster’s investigative show Panorama due to claim on Monday that the corporation pulled the Newsnight investigation after coming under pressure from senior managers. The BBC was allegedly reluctant to run the Newsnight investigation because it had already scheduled tributes to Savile for the Christmas period in 2011, following his death in November that year. “The BBC has announced that Peter Rippon is stepping aside with immediate effect from his post,” the BBC said, adding that it “regrets” the errors.
