ANDREW Neil’s political discussion programme has been axed as the BBC makes a new round of cuts.

The Andrew Neil Show has not been airing during the Covid-19 crisis and it is understood it will not be returning in the future.

However, the broadcaster said it was in talks with the journalist about a new BBC One interview programme.

The corporation is cutting 520 jobs from a workforce of 6000 people. It came as The Guardian also announced it would cut 180 jobs – including 70 from its editorial teams.

The BBC’s head of news, Fran Unsworth, said the broadcaster is going to start concentrating on fewer stories. Its journalists will be pooled in centralised teams rather than working for specific programmes.

Meanwhile, bosses at the broadcaster warned journalists that their desire to “go viral” on Twitter could be undermining impartiality rules.

The broadcaster’s head of standards, David Jordan, said sometimes reporters did not uphold BBC guidelines on “toxic” social media.

He said some journalists have been disciplined by senior staff over their content amid concerns they had “overstepped the mark”.

The BBC commissioned a review on how reporters and media organisations use websites, which is expected to be published in months.

Jordan is leading the review, and told the House of Lords’ Communications and Digital Committee that impartiality did not always thrive on social media.

To address the issue, the corporation has appointed Cardiff University journalism professor Richard Sambrook to help boost impartiality and accuracy online.

Political editor Laura Kuenssberg and Neil are among those whose social media content has sparked criticism.

Kuenssberg received complaints when during the row about Dominic Cummings breaking lockdown rules, she publicly tweeted the Mirror journalist who broke the story suggesting she had her facts wrong.

Jordan went on: “The way social media has developed in recent times – particularly Twitter – has become more adversarial, more argumentative, more combative, more opinionated, more polarised and sometimes actually rather toxic.

“And it can suck people in. The immediacy of it can be alluring, the live dynamics of it can be seductive to some people who find themselves caught up in it, and it can become almost addictive for some of our journalists.

“We have had issues about the use of social media in the BBC where people have not adhered to our standards or have overstepped the mark.

“We have asked Richard Sambrook to take a good look at what we’re doing and come up with some thoughts about how we should properly use [social media] in this new atmosphere and to the best advantage of the BBC.”