Cabinet minister says he will not use privilege to name BBC presenter
The Guardian says A cabinet minister has said he would not use parliamentary privilege to identify the BBC presenter at the heart of a scandal over alleged cash for explicit pictures, in an apparent move to discourage fellow MPs from taking that decision.
A prominent male BBC presenter was suspended at the weekend after allegations he spent £35,000 buying explicit images from a young person, who was allegedly 17 years old when they started talking online.
The work and pensions secretary, Mel Stride, also suggested that whether the young person involved was in “adulthood or childhood was material” to how the allegations should be responded to.
Asked on Sky News if Stride would use parliamentary privilege – in effect a form of legal immunity that grants MPs protection in the House of Commons – to name the presenter involved, as some of his colleagues have suggested they might, he said he would not.
