Yesterday was a good day for BBC to bury bad news on free TV licences for over-75s

Jo Moore is the ministerial adviser who was wheeled out to face the press following her crass exhortation to departmental staff that 'today is a good day to bury bad news' on the day after 9/11.

She had to make a shame-faced apology on television to take the heat off her boss, then Transport Secretary Stephen Byers.

“The BBC must have aware of the possible consequences of taking over free TV licences when it did so in 2015 and the Tories must have been aware of how their actions would be interpreted.”

Yesterday the BBC decided it was the right day to announce it was dropping free TV licences for the over-75s. It was of course the day that the full list of Tory party leadership candidates was announced and several of the candidates launched their campaigns.

Jo Moore of course suffered further embarrassment when she was embroiled in a row with fellow civil servant Martin Sixsmith over her alleged attempts to bury bad news on the day of the funeral of Princess Margaret a year or so later. She ultimately lost her job and retrained as a primary school teacher, leaving the world of The Thick of It-style political spin all the poorer.

I wonder if the BBC's director-general Tony Hall will suffer a similar fate after the Corporation's clumsy attempt to hide its TV licences announcement on a busy day for political news reporters. Dutifully the BBC ran the item second on its main 10 O'Clock News bulletin and after a report and debate about the Tory leadership party contest on Newsnight on BBC2. Taking the heat on Newsnight was BBC chairman David Clementi.

The BBC claims it has 'followed to the letter' the terms of the 2015 BBC Licence Fee settlement agreed with the Tory government of David Cameron. This involves the BBC conducting a consultation with the public before implementing any changes. The argument since yesterday's announcement has revolved around whether or not the responsbility for scrapping free TV licences for 3.5 million people is the government's fault or the BBC's. It is all a smokescreen of course.

The BBC must have aware of the possible consequences of taking over free TV licences when it did so in 2015 and the Tories must have been aware of how their actions would be interpreted.

Of course a story this size is impossible to bury altogether and the arguments will rage on for months. But I guess the initial hit – and shock for the over-75s – will have been slightly masked by the BBC's cynical timing of the announcement.

As Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson said this morning '3.5 million pensioners have been betrayed'.

I wonder how Jo Moore feels this morning.