Shah started his evidence to the committee by apologising to all those who believe in the BBC, licence fee payers, and to BBC staff, saying: “I regret the mistakes that have been made.”
This comes after he made an apology to the committee – and after the BBC also made an apology to Trump.
Shah admitted action should have been taken sooner after issues with the Trump speech edit became known at board level.
Former Newsnight journalist David Grossman, who wrote internal reports commissioned by the BBC board, first flagged the edit in January and it was then discussed further in May, the committee heard.
“Looking back, I think we should have made the decision [to respond] earlier, in May,” said Shah.
He told the committee that Turness, the BBC News chief, had wanted to apologise for the edit sooner, but he did not think this was “sufficient” as the real issue was the impression given that Trump “encouraged a call to violent action”.
“I think there is an issue about how quickly we respond, the speed of our response, why do we not do it quickly enough,” he said, adding: “We should have pursued it to the end and got to the bottom of it, and not wait as we did until it became public discourse.”
Asked if there was pressure from the board to delay the apology, he said “absolutely not”.
Shah vowed to stay in his role to fix the problems.