A senior Cabinet minister has cautioned MPs against revealing the identity of the BBC presenter accused of paying a teenager for explicit images.
Some MPs are said to be considering whether to use the historic convention of parliamentary privilege to expose the star, who has been suspended by the corporation following allegations in the Sun that they paid a young person around £35,000 for explicit pictures beginning at the age of 17. Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride urged caution, emphasising that until all the facts are known, it would be unwise to disclose the presenter's name.
Stride stated: "We don't know those facts, and until we do, I think under those circumstances, it will be ill-advised to do that," during an interview with Times Radio. He further expressed his stance after being asked about the issue again, during a later interview with LBC Radio. He said: “I think everybody has to take their own decision on this one. I can only tell you what I would do, which is that I would not be naming anybody in the House of Commons.
“Parliamentary privilege is a very special and privileged thing and it should be used very, very sparingly.”
A House of Commons spokesman stressed that "privilege should always be used carefully, recognising that Members do have the right to free speech in the Chamber." Media outlets have refrained from reporting the presenter's name, citing concerns about defamation and invasion of privacy.
Parliamentary privilege has been exercised in various instances in the past.
For example, in April, Labour MP Andy McDonald used parliamentary privilege to allege "industrial-scale corruption" related to the Teesworks scheme, prompting Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen to challenge him to repeat the accusations outside the protection of parliamentary privilege. Similarly, Nigel Farage dismissed claims made under parliamentary privilege by Sir Chris Bryant that he had received large sums of money from the Russian state.
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