BBC presenter scrolls on her phone for full minute before realising she’s live on air

It was down to a technical glitch

The awkward blunder happened in a live broadcast as Annita McVeigh was seen scrolling on her phone and talking to her production team, unaware that she was on air.

The incident occurred on Monday following a technical glitch but the 46-year-old quickly regained her composure and professionally carried on with the day’s top stories.

TV critic and broadcaster Scott Bryan shared a clip of McVeigh’s on-air gaffe on X and captioned it: “The moment Annita started checking her phone was when I started panicking.”

Several social media users responded to Bryan as one pointed out: “Seems to be way more technical bloopers happening on BBC News these days...is it the same team as do the shonky work on the new Newsnight?”

Another praised the newsreader’s reaction saying: “Annita is such a pro, laughing at this.”

Returning to the social media platform the following morning, the newsreader ignored the viral clip and instead promoted what was coming up on BBC News later that day.

She wrote: “Talking about the big debate on BBC News Now with @BrettBruen & @JuliaManch @thehill - that’s coming up @BBCNews from 1200-1500 BST #harristrumpdebate2024.”

The broadcaster, who has 13,000 followers on X, has been a presenter on the BBC News channel on and off since 2006.

In February of last year, McVeigh and four other BBC veterans Maxine Croxall, Kasia Madera, Geeta Guru-Murthy and Karin Giannone were axed from their presenting roles following the merging of BBC News and BBC World News in a bid to streamline the corporation's news output.

They were reportedly asked to reapply for their jobs a second time after failing to secure a new role on the channel.

However, in February of this year, McVeigh and Guru-Murthy were announced as the lead presenters for the channel, almost a year after the mum-of-two had taken a step back from television reporting.

McVeigh took to social media to celebrate her comeback at the time as she posted a picture of BBC New Broadcasting House’s iconic entryway in London alongside the caption: “Been a while since I posted one of these.”