BBC bosses have been called on to apologise after a guest who was invited to ask a question during the Tory leadership debate was revealed to have made "disturbing" comments online.
Abdullah Patel gained attention online after asking the Tory leadership hopefuls their views on Islamophobia within the party, citing that he had seen first-hand the impact of it in his community. Addressing the five candidates, he asked if they believed that words have consequences.
He later tweeted that their responses were “deluded” and “disappointing”.
However, following his appearance on the debate, and a subsequent spot on BBC 5 Live, the Imam was revealed to have made a series of "disturbing" claims on Twitter.
These ranged from blaming women for rape to anti-Semitic posts.
BBC 5 Live presenter Nicky Campbell tweeted an apology after the tweets were brought to her attention.
I would like to apologise. We had the Imam from the BBC Tory leadership debate on our programme this morning. His social media comments have been extremely disturbing. We should have checked. We didn’t. I’m sorry.
— Nicky Campbell (@NickyAACampbell) June 19, 2019
She tweeted: "I would like to apologise. We had the Imam from the BBC Tory leadership debate on our programme this morning. His social media comments have been extremely disturbing. We should have checked. We didn’t. I’m sorry."
Following pressure, the BBC News Press Team issued a statement claiming that the account containing the contested comments had been re-activated after their research period had finished.
Statement on BBC debate programme, Our Next Prime Minister. #BBCOurNextPM pic.twitter.com/wn6Go63ujJ
— BBC News Press Team (@BBCNewsPR) June 19, 2019
Patel has since deleted his Twitter account.
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