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.
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.
Parliamentary privilege is a very special and privileged thing and it should be used very, very sparingly— Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride
“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.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak declined to comment on the potential unmasking of the presenter in Parliament, telling broadcasters on his trip to the Nato summit in Lithuania: “We have an existing set of laws that govern free speech and privacy.
“I think it’s important that the BBC conducts this investigation quickly and rigorously given the concerning and serious nature of the allegations.”
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.”
At the beginning of each Parliament, the Speaker tells MPs that the House “asserts its privilege of freedom of speech” and that they are obliged to “exercise that privilege responsibly”.
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.
