Ross keeps his job after phone scandal

Jonathan Ross is set to keep his job as a BBC presenter, despite the Andrew Sachs obscene phone calls scandal, after the corporation’s governing body today agreed the “right action” had been taken against him.

The BBC Trust, which published its report on the controversy today, said the calls were “grossly offensive” and there was no justification for broadcasting them.

It said the material broadcast on Russell Brand’s Radio 2 show last month was a “deplorable intrusion” into the private lives of Sachs and his granddaughter, Georgina Baillie.

But Trust chairman Michael Lyons said the BBC’s director general had taken the right action with regard to Ross, who was suspended without pay for three months.

He said: “We have underlined very clearly that it is not the job of the Trust to make decisions about the terms and conditions of performers or the sanctions that are applied to them when they are found to be wanting.

“We are very clear that the director general has taken the right action with respect to Jonathan Ross.”

Ross, who was involved in the broadcast, is due to return to his £6m (€7.1m)-a-year job when his current period of suspension without pay ends in January.