Deborah Meaden, one of the BBC’s most familiar faces after two decades on Dragons’ Den, has become embroiled in a significant controversy following a series of reposts on social media platform X that have drawn accusations of spreading antisemitic content and misinformation about the conflict involving Iran, Israel and the United States.
The 67-year-old entrepreneur, who has nearly 700,000 followers on the platform, has reposted a range of material in recent weeks touching on the escalating Middle East crisis. The reposts included claims that Donald Trump is “Israel’s slave” and that the US Congress is “owned and operated by the Zionist lobby.” Other content implied Israel poses a greater global threat than Iran, accused the US of committing war crimes following strikes on Iranian vessels, and contained inflammatory descriptions of Trump including the words “pervert,” “pig” and “brain-dead moron who bombs children and protects paedophiles.” Meaden also shared material from Tucker Carlson, named “Anti-Semite of the Year” in 2025 by civil rights organisation StopAntisemitism.
The posts prompted a public intervention from Danny Cohen, the BBC’s former director of television, who accused Meaden of spreading “anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, misinformation and Iran regime propaganda” to her substantial online following. Cohen said she was “bringing the BBC into disrepute” and called on the corporation to take action.
The BBC responded by distancing itself from any obligation to intervene, with a spokesman stating that Meaden is a “freelance contributor” and therefore “not required to uphold the BBC’s impartiality through her actions on social media.”
Cohen rejected that position. Speaking to The Mail on Sunday, he said: “The BBC should not try to side-step responsibility for dealing with this. Attempting to use her exact employment status as an excuse for not addressing the problem is not good enough given the deeply concerning nature of her posts.”
Cohen also pointed to the fact that Meaden continued to use her social media presence to actively promote Dragons’ Den throughout the period in question, writing to followers as recently as Thursday: “Are you watching @BBCDragonsDen?” He argued this constituted a breach of the BBC’s own social media guidelines, which state that those working for the corporation must not “attack individuals, even when you disagree with their views,” nor “use offensive or aggressive language.”
The episode draws inevitable comparisons with the departure of Gary Lineker from Match of the Day last year, after the presenter shared an Instagram post on Zionism featuring a rat — an image with a well-documented history as an antisemitic symbol. Lineker deleted the post and issued an unreserved apology before stepping down from the programme.
Whether the BBC will take any further steps in response to the growing pressure over Meaden’s posts is expected to become clearer in the days ahead.
