Victoria Derbyshire is shortlisted for string of Royal Television Society awards

Victoria Derbyshire has been nominated for News Presenter of the Year after the BBC confirmed they are axing her television show.

Ms Derbyshire said she had been left ‘absolutely devastated’ after finding out about the cut last week when she read it in a newspaper.

The BBC announced that around 450 jobs will be let go from BBC News under plans to reach its £80 million savings target by 2022.

Now, following revelations that Ms Derbyshire’s current affairs programme was being axed, the Royal Television Society today said the presenter has been shortlisted for an award.

The Victoria Derbyshire twitter account today posted: ‘Congratulations to @vicderbyshire who has been nominated for RTS News Presenter of the Year for the 5th year in a row for her work on @VictoriaLIVE.’

The Royal Television Society has revealed that Victoria Derbyshire, pictured leaving the BBC Broadcasting House on January 23, has been shortlisted for Network Presenter of the Year

The account then posted a series of clips from the show, including her discussions with controversial YouTuber Carl Benjamin on his comments about Jess Phillips MP, relatives of knife crime victims, and the father of paedophile Vanessa George.

Also included in Network Presenter of the Year nominations was Newsnight BBC Two’s Emily Maitlis – who grilled Prince Andrew over his friendship with US paedophile Jeffrey Epstein – and Tom Bradby of ITV News.

BBC2’s flagship current affairs show Newsnight is also among the programmes bearing the brunt of the cuts, along with popular radio station Radio 5 Live and the World Service.

It comes after Victoria Derbyshire yesterday confronted the chief of BBC News, asking if bosses had lied to her about the axing of her BBC Two current affairs programme.

The 51-year-old presenter asked the BBC’s director of news and current affairs Fran Unsworth if they had lied to her and her team about the show’s goals.

Ms Unsworth, who earns £340,000 a year, apologised about the programme being cut, telling the host: ‘I’m paid to make really difficult decisions about this.’

Victoria Derbyshire, pictured on her show last week, today confronted the chief of BBC News

Derbyshire live tweeted from a briefing to BBC staff about the cuts to the news division as part of a cost-reduction drive

Ms Derbyshire, who earns £215,000 a year, found out about the cut last week after reading it in a newspaper.

But Ms Unsworth said during today’s meeting at Broadcasting House: ‘I’d like to apologise to the team for the way the story emerged, that was not our intention.’

Ms Derbyshire condemned claims by the BBC that it is cutting her show because it failed to grow its live audience.

She tweeted: ‘We were NEVER asked to grow the linear TV audience. Ever. We were asked to grow our digital audience – we did.

This graphic was posted on a screen during the announcement in London today, showing the split between ‘outlets’, ‘story teams’, ‘specialist production teams’ and ‘commissioning points’

Fran Unsworth said today the plan is to have ‘multi-skilled story teams’, showing this graphic

‘Our digi figures are huge (our successful digital figures appear to be an inconvenience to those making the decisions).’

Fran Unsworth, director of news, spoke at BBC’s Broadcasting House in London today

She added: ‘Our remit when we were set up: 1. Original journalism 2. Reaching underserved audiences 3. Growing the digital figures. We achieved all three.’

Ms Derbyshire live tweeted from a briefing to BBC staff about the cuts to the news division as part of a cost-reduction drive.

She posted an image of a screen from the presentation, entitled Modernising BBC News, which she said was being streamed to staff elsewhere in the BBC.

She told her followers: ‘Head of internal comms just said to us all, ‘enjoy and relax’.’

And she wrote of the BBC’s director of news and current affairs: ‘Fran Unsworth arrives…. ‘Cheery’ music in room like you hear when you’re your put on hold…..’

An online petition calling for the corporation to reverse the BBC’s decision to cut the programme has more than 30,000 signatures.

BBC should revisit decision to axe Victoria Derbyshire Show, say MPs

The BBC’s decision to axe the Victoria Derbyshire programme should be revisited, MPs have said.

Labour’s Vicky Foxcroft called the decision by the broadcaster ‘disappointing’, and noted how the programme has played an important role in sensitively covering issues such as youth violence and knife crime.

It comes as the BBC announced that around 450 jobs will be cut from BBC News under plans to reach its £80 million savings target by 2022.

Ms Foxcroft (Lewisham) said: ‘Can I start my comments by saying how I think it’s disappointing that the Victoria Derbyshire show is going to be taken off air.

‘I’ve been on this show several times to talk about the impact of youth violence and finding solutions to preventing it.

‘They’ve engaged in looking at the root causes as to how you tackle knife crime and have engaged with people on the show including former young mayors of Lewisham with genuine sensitivity.

‘I hope this decision could be revisited.’

Fellow Labour MP Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) added: ‘Could I also add my voice to that, particularly in light of the work that they have done around Feltham young offenders and some of the very complex issues that have arisen in relation to youth crime?’

Broadcaster Derbyshire has said she is ‘absolutely devastated’ by the news her show is ending.

Writing on Twitter, Derbyshire added that she was ‘unbelievably proud’ of what the programme had achieved.

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk