Culture secretary says BBC should have ‘space’ to investigate allegations about presenter

The Sun reported that the teenager’s family complained to the BBC on 19 May and that the payments were used to fund a drugs habit. Photograph: James Manning/PA

The BBC should now be “given the space” to investigate allegations that an unnamed presenter paid a teenager for sexually explicit images, the culture secretary, Lucy Frazer, has said after holding urgent talks with the broadcaster’s director general, Tim Davie.

After speaking with him on the phone about the “deeply concerning” allegations involving one of the BBC’s presenters, she said he had assured her that the BBC “are investigating swiftly and sensitively”.