Tony Livesey steps back from BBC Radio 5 Live after Panorama

BBC Radio 5 Live presenter Tony Livesey has stepped back from his late-night show following allegations made in a Panorama investigation into West Ham United co-owner David Sullivan. The BBC confirmed on Tuesday, June 9, that Livesey had asked to take a break while the broadcaster considers the matters raised by the program.

The Panorama episode, which aired on Monday night, featured allegations from seven women who accuse Sullivan of sexually exploitative and predatory behavior spanning several decades, starting in the 1980s. Sullivan, a billionaire businessman who recently stepped down as West Ham director, has categorically denied all the allegations, calling them "factually incorrect and entirely false."

One of the women, identified only as Florence, claimed that in 1999, when she was 20, Livesey—then editor-in-chief of Sullivan's Daily Sport and Sunday Sport newspapers—introduced her to Sullivan by passing her a phone in the newsroom, leading to a meeting at Sullivan's Essex mansion where she alleges she was coerced into sex. Livesey has firmly denied this allegation, stating he has "no recollection" of the incident and that introducing women to Sullivan was "not part" of...