HE WAS one of the BBC’s longest-serving newscasters and a veteran foreign correspondent. She had hosted daytime makeover shows after being a young City financier. And it is Philip Hayton who has quit the corporation after 37 years because of a personality clash with his co-presenter.

Hayton, 57, had presented the 9am-1pm weekday slot on BBC News 24 with Kate Silverton, 35, for less than three months, and handed in his notice halfway through his latest 12-month contract.

The Times understands that he demanded that the BBC move Silverton to another slot. The BBC backed her, leaving Hayton, who has presented all its main television bulletins, little option but to leave. Yesterday Silverton was with a new co-host, Simon McCoy.

“It boils down to incompatibility,” Hayton told The Guardian. “We did four hours of live TV every day and you have to like each other.”

Silverton, who used to present makeover shows, worked for an investment bank before opting for a career in the media.

Her agent, Alex Armitage, said: “Kate didn’t realise there was any problem. She has always got on well with her co-presenters so this came as a bolt from the blue.”

Hayton said he had not had a similar problem in 37 years at the BBC. But broadcasting sources claimed he had in the past sought to remove co-presenters and had been accommodated by his bosses. “It may be that he doesn’t work well with strong women,” an insider said.

Mr Armitage said: “It is not the first time that Philip has expressed a strong preference about who he presents with.”

A BBC spokeswoman declined to comment on the personality clash. She said: “Philip has chosen to leave the full-time employment of the BBC. He may continue to work for us as a freelancer and the door is always open.”

Hayton, who joined the BBC from a 1960s pirate radio station, said he had no immediate future plans and was leaving without rancour or bitterness.

One critic has described the glamorous Silverton as looking “not only as if she had come fresh from a beauty salon but as if she usually worked in one”.

Hayton has covered more than 20 conflicts as a BBC foreign correspondent and broke the news of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother’s death. When asked during a BBC children’s webchat what skills were required to be a news presenter, he replied: “It’s helpful if you’ve been a reporter so that’s why they generally appoint presenters who’ve been reporters.

“Increasingly TV news is becoming more glamorous,” he said, but being glamorous was “certainly not the be-all and end-all, and it’s surprising what you can do with make-up, haircuts and nice clothes”.

He believes a strong journalistic background to be vital for BBC News presenters; Silverton’s rise through entertainment shows may not have impressed the veteran. Mr Armitage said: “Anyone who thinks you can’t do entertainment as well as news is a dreadful snob.”

Rod Liddle, with whom Silverton has also worked on TV, defended his erstwhile co-host. He said: “Kate is intelligent, attractive and has strong opinions. She is far cleverer than Hayton. There are plenty of very stupid women at the BBC but she isn’t one of them. Philip probably needs to work on an island where there are no women.”

Hayton rejected claims that he was a misogynist, saying he had had an excellent working relationship with his previous News 24 co-hosts Joanna Gosling and Anna Jones. He had been “spoilt” by working with those women and the “law of averages” suggested he would eventually encounter a Silverton, Hayton mused.

The BBC said: “It is a matter of sincere regret that Philip has chosen to leave the full-time employment of the BBC”. Silverton “is widely regarded as a thoroughly professional and popular member of the team”.

KATE SILVERTON

• Psychology degree from Durham University and a year reading Arabic and Middle Eastern History and Politics. Worked as a corporate financier
  
• Presenter for Big Strong Boys, Housecall, Heaven And Earth Show, Breakfast News, Weekend with Rod Liddle and Kate Silverton, News 24
  
• Contributor to The Wright Stuff; host of The Body Shop Crystal Carousel Awards, the Royal Town Planning Awards; corporate videos for Royal Bank of Scotland

  PHILIP HAYTON

• Worked as a teacher in Jordan with Voluntary Service Overseas
  
• Joined BBC Radio from pirate station in 1968. Original presenter of Look North
  
• As a BBC foreign correspondent reported on the Iranian Revolution, Northern Ireland, the “bush war” in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, the overthrow of Idi Amin, the death of General Franco, elections in the US, Britain and India
  
• Presented the BBC One O’Clock News, Six O’Clock News, Nine O’Clock News, BBC World and BBC News 24

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