BBC chief to axe 2,800 jobs

Twelve per cent of the 23,000-strong workforce would be culled as part of drastic plans to save £2 billion. The majority of the job losses will be in London.

The factual division, responsible for flagship series such as Planet Earth, Who Do You Think You Are? and Horizon, is expected to bear the brunt.

It follows claims that the BBC plans to make savings by hacking 60 per cent of the budget from documentary series Storyville and 20 per cent from programmes including Horizon, Imagine and The Culture Show.

Also under threat are factual series Timewatch, The Money Programme and Rough Justice.

Mr Thompson is seeking cuts after a below inflation licence fee settlement left the broadcaster with a £2 billion "black hole" in its finances.

At the very least, he is expected to make three per cent annual savings over the next six years. Initial plans to close an entire service, such as BBC Three, have been discounted.

Mr Thompson will make his argument for the cuts at a meeting of the governing BBC Trust next Wednesday. The Trust will then give its verdict on whether that strategy can be put into action.

Any significant job cuts will spark outrage at the BBC, which has only just come through a redundancy process affecting almost 4,000 staff.

The factual division alone has already lost 420 members.

In news, there is outcry over plans to merge the TV, radio and online newsrooms and make five per cent annual cuts there.

High-level staff including Today editor Ceri Thomas, Today presenter James Naughtie and Newsnight host Gavin Esler, have put their names to an open letter expressing their "dismay" over the "salami slicing" of budgets which they say will hamper the BBC's news coverage.

BBC insiders also say the lack of longserving, experienced staff following the last round of redundancies in 2005 is one reason for the phone-in fixing scandal that rocked the corporation.

Staff are reeling from the resignation last Friday of BBC1 controller Peter Fincham over the so-called " Crowngate" affair - where promotional footage of the Queen was edited to make it appear, wrongly, that she had stormed out of a photoshoot.

The resignation of Mr Fincham's publicity manager Jane Fletcher over the incident has also provoked an outcry, with a campaign set up on social networking site Facebook.

So far 80 friends and colleagues have joined the "We love Jane Fletcher" group, including BBC Worldwide director of content and production Wayne Garvie and BBC editor of comedy Kenton Allen.

Many staff question why the head of BBC Vision, Jana Bennett, has not faced the axe, given that she has ultimate responsibility for all the BBC's television output.