MPs would be “ill-advised” to name the BBC presenter who allegedly paid a teenager for explicit images, a senior Cabinet minister has warned.
It comes amid reports some MPs are threatening to use parliamentary privilege to unveil the star who has been suspended by the corporation after The Sun newspaper reported he paid a young person around £35,000 over three years, from the age of 17, for explicit pictures.
The special right means MPs and peers are protected from legal ramifications based on things said while in Parliament.
“We don’t know the facts”
But Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride discouraged colleagues from invoking it to name the presenter.
“We don’t know those facts, and until we do, I think under those circumstances, it will be ill-advised to do that,” he told Times Radio.
He also told LBC Radio: “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 spokesperson said: “Privilege should always be used carefully, recognising that Members do have the right to free speech in the Chamber.”
Nigel Farage
The media has not reported the presenter’s name due to concerns about defamation and breaching his privacy.
Recent examples of parliamentary privilege include its use in a row over a major development project.
In April, Middlesbrough’s Labour MP Andy McDonald alleged “industrial-scale corruption” around the Teesworks scheme in the Commons, prompting Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen to challenge him to repeat the allegations without the protection of parliamentary privilege.
Nigel Farage last year dismissed claims made by Sir Chris Bryant under parliamentary privilege that the former Ukip and Brexit Party leader received hundreds of thousands of pounds from the Russian state.
In 2018, former Cabinet minister Lord Hain used parliamentary privilege to name retail tycoon Sir Philip Green as the businessman at the centre of #MeToo allegations despite a court injunction preventing a newspaper from identifying him in relation to allegations made against him.
In 2011, Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming revealed that banker Sir Fred Goodwin had secured an injunction protecting his identity. The same year, Mr Hemming also told Parliament that footballer Ryan Giggs had obtained an injunction to prevent reporting of an alleged affair.
Related: Pressure mounts on BBC as it deals with presenter explicit photo claims