BBC News hosts reunited with former co-star as axes continue | Celebrity News | Showbiz & TV

Martine Croxall joined four of her former BBC colleagues for a catch-up at the pub a week after she left the channel.

The presenter took to Instagram yesterday to share a snap of the group – which included fellow presenters Geeta Guru-Murthy and Annita McVeigh, who also recently left the BBC.

The cuts came after the BBC confirmed it would merge the BBC News and BBC World channels to make the channel more dynamic than its predecessors.

The BBC star joined Martine in sharing a bottle of rose wine as they took a selfie to commemorate the “rare” occasion after she bid her final farewell on air last week.

In view of her 1,974 followers, Martine captioned the picture: “Rarely seen in the same room together but it’s magic when it happens!”

Martine came under fire back in October after “gleefully” reacting to the news Boris Johnson had pulled out of the Tory leadership race while introducing The Papers.

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She said: “Well this is all very exciting, isn’t it? Am I allowed to be this gleeful? Well, I am.”

In her first question to guests appearing on the programme, Martine remarked: “Can we even show you the front pages just yet, have they arrived? No, they haven’t arrived.

“It’s all a little bit, you know, lastminute.com isn’t it? Because all the front pages were probably out of date by the time we received them.”

Martine also later suggested herself that her comments may have broken the BBC’s strict rules.

Laughing at jibes directed towards the former Prime Minister, she said: “I shouldn’t probably [laugh]. I’m probably breaking some terrible due impartiality rule by giggling.”

Several viewers, including many Tory MPs, took to Twitter to react to the comments, complaining it displayed bias.

Former Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries wrote: “This lack of impartiality demonstrates how deep-seated the bias is.”

Campaign group Defund the BBC lashed out at the broadcaster, accusing it of not even trying to “hide its bias anymore” while renewing calls for the licence fee to be scrapped.

Rebecca Ryan, Campaign Director at Defund the BBC, told Express.co.uk: “The BBC doesn’t even bother to hide its bias anymore. In fact, it finds it pretty hilarious.

“And millions of reluctant Brits, who are forced to fund the corporation, bullied and harassed in their homes, are the butt of the joke.”

A BBC spokesman said at the time: “BBC News is urgently reviewing last night’s edition of The Papers on the News channel for a potential breach of impartiality. It is imperative that we maintain the highest editorial standards. We have processes in place to uphold our standards, and these processes have been activated.”

Martine has since suggested she has a “new role somewhere” amid claims she is staying at the BBC.