The BBC’s decision to axe Victoria Derbyshire’s award-winning BBC show faced a severe backlash on Thursday led by the presenter herself, who said she was “devastated” by the news and revealed that she had not been informed of the decision in advance.

As politicians, BBC staffers and guests on the show on Thursday declared their dismay at the decision to axe the BBC Two current affairs and investigative show, an internal email revealed that the move was part of a wider series of changes to be unveiled next week.

Derbyshire expressed pride in what she and her team had achieved in less than five years. In her tweets she referred to “breaking tonnes of original stories (which we were asked to do); attracting a working class, young, diverse audience that BBC radio & and TV news progs just don’t reach (which we were asked to do); & smashing the digital figures (which we were asked to do).

“I’m gutted particularly for our brilliant, young, ambitious, talented team – love ‘em. And for all those people we gave a voice to. Love them too,” she said. And she told followers that she had first learned of the decision from a report in the Times.

Absolutely devastated at the plan to end our programme (which I first learned about in yesterday’s Times). I’m unbelievably proud of what our team and our show have achieved in under 5 years.. 1/3 — Victoria Derbyshire (@vicderbyshire) January 23, 2020

Derbyshire spoke out on social media around the same time that an email went to all BBC staff from the broadcaster’s director of news and current affairs, Fran Unsworth, confirming the show was ending and telling them the move was part of a “wider series of changes” the BBC would be announcing next week.

BBC insiders had suggested the axing of Derbyshire’s show was part of a package of cuts but bungling had caused the news to leak.

Closing the show had “not been an easy decision”, added Unsworth, who said it was “exactly the type of journalism we need to continue, reaching audiences who are often underserved by the BBC and we will be retaining some of the programme’s journalism roles to enable us to continue this work”.

Further details of that will be unveiled next week, and Unsworth said Derbyshire would be taking “a wider role” across the BBC’s broadcast and digital output and continue to lead on some of the “high-profile audience events and original stories she has championed”.

Unsworth continued: “However, audience behaviours are changing. Linear television viewing is declining, and as we progress with our £80m savings target, it is no longer cost-effective to continue producing the programme on television.”

However, there was disbelief among those working on the show as Unsworth’s email was digested. One argued that their innovative use of social media, digital reach and ability to do “Panorama-type investigations on a shoestring budget” fitted with what the BBC needed to do as it sought to evolve and survive.

It was also suggested that the show – commissioned when James Harding was the director of BBC news and current affairs – had lacked a champion in the BBC’s upper echelons when it came to decisions about cuts.

Louisa Compton, the show’s former executive editor and now a commissioning editor at Channel 4’s Dispatches, said its importance could not be underestimated, adding: “It’s probably the only programme across all channels that gives a particular voice to the voiceless.”

It had set out to reach an audience that included working-class viewers, stay-at-home mothers and those who were not served by Newsnight or Today, she added, through coverage such as that of domestic abuse and Grenfell.

As a petition to save the show gathered pace, journalists and media figures including the radio presenter James O’Brien and Piers Morgan expressed regret at the decision, and the TV presenter Dermot O’Leary described the move as “bewildering” and “plain wrong”.

“A brilliant show that puts real people and difficult subjects at its heart. It works. Odd, and just plain wrong,” he tweeted.

A former guest of the show, a survivor of sexual abuse who spoke on it last year about the impact of the double jeopardy rule – a legal principle which prevented people being tried for the same crime twice – said she was “devastated” to hear it had been cancelled, as it “was such a big moment for us”.

“It helped us tell our story on a much wider platform – it was in the news, on Twitter, on Facebook,” she added.

Kelly Ward, who spoke on the show on Wednesday about her brother, who took his own life last year, said: “Without the show, his story would have never fully got out there … It touches taboo subjects in a positive way.”

Journalists from the programme also voiced their disappointment. Ellie Costello, a reporter on the programme since September, emphasised the strengths of the “talented, creative” senior women who led the team and added: “It is devastating to be told that such a trailblazing team could be taken off-air.”

#VictoriaDerbyshire is a brave and dynamic show led by a woman of the same ilk. It gives a voice to those who are rarely heard; shines a light on stories that are rarely told about communities that are too often ignored. Its journalism is award-winning. This news is so sad. — Ellie Costello (@elscostells) January 22, 2020

Tracy Brabin, the Labour MP and shadow culture minister, will write to the outgoing director general, Tony Hall, to urge a “rethink” of the decision and ask for a commitment to the type of journalism that has become associated with it.

Describing the show as “brave and courageous journalism at its very best”, she spoke of how it often brought attention to the issues that MPs find in their surgeries “but wouldn’t find their way into the mainstream press”.

The Conservative MP Damian Collins, who is seeking re-election as chair of the Commons digital, culture, media and sport committee, said it was “disturbing” to hear of reports of planned cuts to BBC News.

But another Tory MP, Michael Fabricant, said: “Personally, I am pleased the Victoria Derbyshire programme is being axed. I found it turgid, mostly dull, and trivial.”