According to Baroness Bakewell, who is backing the campaign, Mark Thompson, the Corporation’s outgoing director general, said the statue could not be erected on BBC premises because Orwell was “too Left-wing”.
Orwell worked as a BBC journalist, producing radio programmes at Broadcasting House during the Second World War before leaving to publish Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Mr Thompson’s remark will surprise critics of the BBC, who have long accused the corporation of liberal bias.
Lady Bakewell said the exchange took place earlier this year.
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