The BBC should be proud to be progressive as the corporation walks a "joyous tightrope of the culture wars", its director general has said.

A leaked recording reveals Tim Davie saying that "being progressive" was something staff "should be proud of".

The online question and answer session with employees has been met with anger as critics claim his remarks amount to a political position.

Davie was also heard saying the BBC was "fair and balanced technically in terms of impartiality" in its coverage and did not have "party political bias".

During the clip, which shows a meeting in January 2021, a BBC employee can be heard telling Davie there was "a real perception out there that we haven’t done enough to tackle impartiality, that we need to ‘de-woke’."

The staff member then asks him: "How would you respond to that?"

Davie replies: "We do a reasonably good job of walking along the joyous tightrope of the culture wars where, being progressive, diverse, doing the things we should be proud of, is not woke.

"But meanwhile, we’ve got to make sure that we are clearly representing views from across the board."

In response, the BBC said their director general meant progressive "in relation to areas like market-led technological change" and that "any other interpretation is wrong".

His comment have received backlash with Reform UK leader Richard Tice suggesting Davie's comments "prove the BBC is not fit for purpose".

"Tim Davie’s comments confirm how deeply embedded Left-wing ideology is at the BBC. These comments prove the BBC is not fit for purpose and should be immediately defunded," he told The Telegraph.