In September 2005, Hayton resigned from BBC News 24 six months into a year's contract, citing differences with co-presenter Kate Silverton. "The Daily Telegraph", without substantiation and quoting an unnamed 'insider', reported that he turned to Silverton during a break and said "I don't like you". The "Daily Mirror" quoted another BBC 'insider' as saying that Silverton is "...pushy beyond belief. Behind her big superficial smile she can be a really aggressive, manipulative monster who always gets what she wants." Hayton merely cited "incompatibility" with Silverton as his reason and when his managers refused to move Silverton to another time slot he left. Silverton was later in the peculiar position of having to go through the morning's paper review live on air the morning the story broke, avoiding any discussion of the story and chiding her new co-anchor when he looked to refer to it. Hayton said that he left the BBC "without bitterness or rancour". Silverton continued to present on News 24 in the same weekly time slot alongside Simon McCoy.