This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Philip Davies, the Conservative MP, has had a heated newsroom exchange with Jon Snow, during which he accused the Channel 4 News presenter of being “past it”.

The row occurred while Davies was on a tour of the Channel 4 News offices on Tuesday afternoon.

Numerous Channel 4 News journalists witnessed the verbal bust-up, which sources present said lasted about 10 minutes, as Davies was looking round the ITN building where Channel 4 News is made on Gray’s Inn Road in central London.

“It was quite extraordinary,” said one witness of the unexpected exchange as Snow and Guru-Murthy prepared for Tuesday night’s edition of the award-winning programme.

The Tories were nothing if not even-handed in their criticism of news broadcasters on Tuesday, with culture secretary Sajid Javid telling a committee of MPs, including Davies, earlier in the day that he used to watch Newsnight “but not so much any more”, indicating that the BBC2 current affairs flagship programme was not as compelling since Jeremy Paxman’s departure.

Philip Davies has previously accused Channel 4 of being ‘too politically correct’. Photograph: Rex Features

Davies, who has previously criticised Channel 4 for being “too politically correct”, said that he no longer watched Channel 4 News.

The row was begun when Snow challenged Davies as he toured the studio and was watched, according to onlookers, by up to 50 ITN staff.

Davies confirmed to the Guardian that he had visited Channel 4 News on Tuesday as part of a wider tour of the ITN building, but declined to comment further. His tour included a visit to ITV News, which is also made by ITN out of Gray’s Inn Road.

A Channel 4 News spokeswoman said: “We were pleased to welcome Philip Davies MP to Channel 4 News yesterday.

“Our journalists never shy away from a full and frank discussion, and Jon Snow and Mr Davies had a robust exchange of views.”

John Snow, right, with his colleague Krishnan Guru-Murthy. Photograph: Linda Nylind/Guardian

The row came on the same day that Davies’s fellow Conservative MP, Sajid Javid, criticised BBC2’s Newsnight.

Davies visited ITN on Tuesday after quizzing new BBC Trust chair Rona Fairhead about the future of the corporation, in his role as a member of the Commons culture, media and sport select committee.

The MP for Shipley, who had numerous tetchy exchanges with Fairhead’s predecessor Lord Patten during culture committee hearings, asked the BBC Trust chair: “Have you gone native in record time?” Fairhead replied: “Absolutely not”.

Javid, also appearing before the culture select committee to give evidence on the future of the BBC, said he used to be a fan of Newsnight, now anchored by Evan Davis following the departure of Paxman.

“It’s not that it is too late … I don’t find it as compelling viewing as it was before,” Javid told MPs. “Maybe it has something to do with when one of the presenters left or something.”

However, Javid revealed himself to be a Doctor Who fan, telling MPs it was the one BBC show he never missed.

• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email media@theguardian.com or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”.

• To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook.

• This article was amended on 24 October 2014. An earlier version incorrectly stated that the exchange was started by Philip Davies who told Jon Snow that he should retire and accused him of leftwing bias. In addition we also incorrectly stated that Krishnan Guru-Murthy suggested that Davies should leave the newsroom. These have been corrected in the headline, subhead, text and picture captions. We apologise for the errors.

