John Simpson, the BBC’s world affairs editor, has defended the corporation’s refusal to describe Hamas as terrorists.

The veteran correspondent said using the label for Hamas, proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the Government in 2021, would mean taking sides and not reporting conflict with “due impartiality”.

Mr Simpson, who joined the BBC in 1970, claimed politicians “know perfectly well” the broadcaster’s stance in regards to the term and that plenty “privately agreed with it”.

His intervention comes amid mounting criticism of the BBC by MPs and former journalists over its reporting of the Hamas attacks in Israel.

“The BBC’s job is to place the facts before its audience and let them decide what they think, honestly and without ranting,” Mr Simpson tweeted.

“That’s why, in Britain and throughout the world, nearly half a billion people watch, listen to and read us. There’s always someone who would like us to rant. Sorry, it’s not what we do.”

However, Grant Shapps, the Defence Secretary, said it was time for the BBC to get the “moral compass out” and suggested it was “disgraceful” for the news organisation not to describe Hamas as terrorists.