Mills' abrupt sacking creates another headache for the BBC

The Scott Mills allegations have put the BBC back on the front pages for all the wrong reasons. As the face of BBC Radio 2's breakfast show, he's one of the corporation's high profile names.

Which makes his abrupt departure, facing claims over his conduct, yet another BBC crisis - the last for the current director general Tim Davie, who leaves the corporation later this week. There is perhaps an irony in that.

We must make clear we don't know the details of the allegations against Scott Mills. He is the presenter of the biggest breakfast show in the country. There is no allegation of criminality.

Other scandals have been criminal. News at Ten presenter Huw Edwards and former Radio 1 DJ Tim Westwood brought the BBC into serious disrepute by their actions.

Edwards was convicted of making indecent images of children.

Westwood will stand trial next year, charged with four counts of rape and nine of indecent assault. He denies the charges.

For Scott Mills, whatever he is accused of, it looks like the end of a glittering career that took him from a teen local radio star to Radio 1's voice of the charts and king of the innuendo.

Now he's out - and it happened fast. Mills has been off air since last Wednesday and was sacked by the weekend.

Mills joined BBC Radio 1 in 1998 as the host of the early breakfast show and went on to become a household name presenting his irreverent afternoon show.

The DJ, who would go on to make the station his home for 24 years, also built up an army of fans thanks to hit games and silly features like Innuendo Bingo.

Mills moved to Radio 2 to take over the weekday afternoon slot from Steve Wright in 2022.

In January 2025, Mills took over Radio 2's flagship breakfast show, replacing the outgoing Zoe Ball, with his tenure ultimately lasting just over a year.

An organisation shouldn't necessarily be judged on the behaviour of individuals who work for it.

But it should be judged on whether its culture enables inappropriate behaviour and how it responds when that behaviour is raised.

In many of the previous cases, there were claims that the BBC had allowed its talent to get away with bad behaviour. The BBC disputes that.

But the BBC's response to those scandals was also found wanting. It was too slow. Too defensive.

After the Edwards' crisis, it launched a review of its culture, professing its intention to stamp out bad behaviour.

Last September, Davie told the Culture, Media and Sport Committee "no-one is irreplaceable".

The chair of the BBC's board, Samir Shah, told MPs: "It doesn't matter how grand you are, how famous you are, how important you are.

"If you behave badly and abuse your power, we don't want you working for the BBC."

At the time, Davie said he couldn't rule out another scandal involving BBC faces abusing their power. "We may see more things coming out".

In his last week, another crisis has landed at the BBC. But Davie and the BBC can argue - with some justification - that the departure of Mills shows its new processes and practices are working well.

Nobody is too big to be fired, if their behaviour has compromised the BBC. That's the message Davie might like us to take away from this.