The well-respected journalist came under fire after interviewing a Scottish minister on the show.

The BBC have issued an apology over Laura Kuenssberg’s interview with John Swinney (Image: BBC)

The BBC has issued an apology over an error Laura Kuenssberg made during a heated interview with a Scottish minister. Back in October 2025, the 49-year-old broadcaster came under fire after interviewing the First Minister of Scotland, John Swinney, on her Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show. In the heated debate, the presenter claimed the UK Government was spending £10bn on Clyde shipbuilding.

It comes after Swinney was forced to correct Kuenssberg for other errors she made about Scottish politics live on the show. During the programme, the broadcaster incorrectly referred to the Scottish Parliamentary elections taking place in 2017 and 2022, but the Holyrood votes were in 2016 and 2021.

Here is Laura Kuenssberg making false claims about UK Govt spending on the Clyde followed later by the brief summary the BBC says she gave after realising her mistake.

We believe the BBC is lying. Her summary is vague and in no way suggests she knew her earlier claim was false. pic.twitter.com/oQ12kj9CJt

— MSM Monitor (@msm_monitor) November 30, 2025

Now, three months on from the mistake, the BBC has shared an apology on its Corrections and Clarifications board on the BBC website. It read: “In a question to First Minister of Scotland John Swinney, we asked: ‘If you don’t want to deal with arms companies, for example, does that mean then that you did not want the UK government to spend ten billion pounds with BAE building ships on the Clyde?’

“In fact, it is the Norwegian government, not the UK government, that is spending 10 billion pounds with BAE building ships on the Clyde. We are happy to make this clear.” At the end of August, the UK secured a £10 billion deal to supply the Norwegian navy with at least five new warships.

The Government said the deal to provide Type 26 frigates would support 4000 UK jobs “well into the 2030s”, including more than 2000 at BAE Systems’ Glasgow shipyards where the frigates will be built.

Sharing the response it got from the BBC at the time, MSM Monitor took to X – formerly known as Twitter – said: “The BBC has refused to issue a public correction despite admitting yet another error that negatively impacts SNP.

The presenter issued an update on the BBC show (Image: BBC)

“Laura Kuenssberg twice falsely claimed the UK Govt was spending £10 billion on Clyde shipbuilding. It took the broadcaster FOUR WEEKS to issue this response.” The BBC response was: “You are correct, the reference to UK spending was a mistake. Sorry about this.

“We’ve spoken to the programme team, and they said they realised this during the live show and Laura did correctly summarise the situation later in the programme, but they’re sorry for getting it wrong the first time.”

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Kuenssberg later correctly summarised this on the programme with both Swinney and panellists. She said the £10 billion was “for the UK Government to build ships and provide jobs and employment on the Clyde, being built by defence company BAE” in the same interview with Swinney.

MSM Monitor, however, said this correct summary was “vague” and “in no way suggests she knew her earlier claim was false”