Lewis Goodall

Lewis Goodall     (editor, author)
Alma mater	St John's College (Oxford)
Political Editor BBC Newsnight In office January 2020 - Present Employer BBC  Political Correspondent In office January 2017 - January 2020 Employer Sky News  Producer  In office September 2012 - December 2016 Employer BBC  Researcher  In office July 2011 - September 2012 Employer IPPR  Researcher  In office October 2010 - September 2011 Employer Granada Television

Lewis Goodall is Political Editor at BBC Newsnight and was formerly political correspondent at Sky News.

On 19 August 2020, the New Statesman published an article by Lewis Goodall entitled "The schools scandal", which had the cover line: "How the Government's ineptitude created a lost generation".

BBC impartiality row

On 20 August 2020, The Telegraph reported:

The BBC is at the centre of a fresh impartiality row after Newsnight’s policy editor wrote an article for a Left-wing magazine attacking the Government’s handling of the exam crisis.

Lewis Goodall’s piece for the New Statesman was billed on the cover as an examination of “how the Government’s ineptitude created a lost generation”, and headlined: “How a Government led by technocrats nearly destroyed a generation of social mobility.”

Goodall, a former Labour activist who previously worked for the Left-wing Institute for Public Policy Research think tank, laid the problems at the door of the Prime Minister’s senior adviser. He wrote: “We cannot know the extent of Dominic Cummings’ involvement in this sorry episode, and it may be that he was not part of it at all. But his approach encapsulates a method of governing that was on full display throughout.”

The article was signed off by BBC management, who insisted that it was within the corporation’s impartiality guidelines.

It was criticised by Sir Robbie Gibb, former director of communications at No 10 and a former head of the BBC’s Westminster unit, who said: “Is there anyone more damaging to the BBC’s reputation for impartiality than Lewis Goodall? This is so off the scale I don’t even know where to begin.” Sir Robbie’s brother is Nick Gibb, the schools minister.

Support on Twitter

On 20 August 2020, this tweet in support of Lewis Goodall appeared:

@lewis_goodall is an outstanding journalist particularly over past few months, his reporting on #Alevel debacle has been great, literally doing what all journalists should be doing, calling out this government. The fact he's getting pulled on this by #gibb is farcical.

Books

Lewis Goodall is the author of a book on the recent history of the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn entitled "Left for Dead?: The Strange Death and Rebirth of the Labour Party".

 

A Document by Lewis Goodall

Title	Document type	Publication date	Subject(s)	Description
Document:The schools scandal	Article	19 August 2020	Dominic Cummings Boris Johnson Gavin Williamson Ofqual Michael Gove	How a government led by technocrats nearly destroyed a generation of social mobility

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