Emily Maitlis returns to Newsnight after Dominic Cummings row

Bosses claimed that Maitlis and the team had broken the BBC’s impartiality guidelines following her remarks on the saga last week.

In her introduction to last Tuesday’s show, Maitlis said Cummings had ‘broken the rules’ when he travelled from London to Durham during lockdown and ‘the country can see that, and it’s shocked the government cannot’.

Despite the police later finding a minor breach, the BBC said the monologue ‘did not meet our standards of due impartiality’.

Maitlis returned to Newsnight on Monday, but did not mention the row during a show focusing on the protests that have broken out across the US in response to the death of an unarmed black man.

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George Floyd died after a white Minneapolis police officer held his knee on his neck for several minutes.

Following the controversy over Cummings, Maitlis did not appear as scheduled on an episode of Newsnight, saying she asked for the evening off.

The presenter, widely lauded for her interview with the Duke of York last year, said she has been ‘overwhelmed’ by support from viewers after her monologue on Mr Cummings.

The 49-year-old broadcaster tweeted: ‘Been overwhelmed by all the kindness, messages – and support on here – and I’ve probably missed much of it.

‘A big thank you from us all at Newsnight.’