BBC lets Jonathan Ross keep his £6m-a-year job

THE BBC faced growing anger today after Jonathan Ross was cleared to return to his £6million-a-year job.

The disgraced presenter, 48, will face no further action for his part in obscene telephone calls to actor Andrew Sachs, despite the BBC Trust condemning his conduct as "deplorable" and "unjustifiably offensive".

Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons said Ross, who has a three-year £18million contract, had been "held to account" by being suspended for three months.

The Trust, delivering its report into the controversy, concluded that the phone calls in which Ross told Sachs, 78, in a voicemail message that Russell Brand had "f***ed" his 23-year-old granddaughter should never have been made or broadcast.

The controller of Radio 2, Lesley Douglas, had been told about the programme's content by the head of compliance, who said it was "very funny", and did nothing to stop its broadcast on Brand's show. Sir Michael said: "The Trust is in no doubt that the ultimate responsibility rests with the BBC. It is the editorial management who are accountable for what the BBC broadcasts."

The Trust also criticised Ross for using the F-word "in a sexual context" in separate interviews with Michael Aspel and Gwyneth Paltrow during his Friday night show. It said the language was "gratuitous and not editorially justified".

However, MPs said the BBC and governing BBC Trust had not gone far enough and needed to take decisive action against Ross, whose suspension without pay ends in January. Shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt said today's judgment ignored the "fundamental issue" of putting quality programming ahead of ratings. Liberal Democrat Phil Willis said: "Once again the BBC has demonstrated that it is one law for its highly-paid stars and one law for everyone else."

The BBC Trust also revealed that all BBC executives are to waive their bonuses this year because of the "current economic climate".