Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer is to carry talks with the BBC director-general Tim Davie over “deeply concerning” allegations about one in every of its presenters.
The unnamed star is alleged to have paid a young person greater than £35,000 for sexually specific photos.
The presenter allegedly first requested photos from the youth once they had been aged 17 again in 2020 and has made a sequence of funds over time, in response to The Sun.
In a press release forward of the assembly, a Department of Culture, Media and Sport spokesperson mentioned: “These allegations are deeply concerning.
“As a public service broadcaster in receipt of public funding, senior officers have careworn to the BBC that the allegations have to be investigated urgently and sensitively, with the division saved knowledgeable.
“The culture secretary will be speaking to Tim Davie later today.”
In new allegations revealed in The Sun on Sunday, the younger individual’s mom mentioned she was “shocked” after her little one confirmed her a screenshot of the video chat, during which the well-known presenter was sitting in his boxer shorts on a settee at his residence.
She mentioned the person gave the impression to be “leaning forward, getting ready for my child to perform for him.”
“My child told me, ‘I have shown things’ and this was a picture from some kind of video call,” she added.
The newspaper didn’t say when the alleged incident occurred.
The mom additionally alleged that earlier this 12 months she was shocked after overhearing the presenter “on the phone saying to my child: ‘I told you not to f***ing ring me’.”
No one concerned has been named, however The Sun mentioned the presenter has not been suspended. It is known he’s nonetheless being paid his six-figure wage in full.
The newspaper mentioned the household made a grievance on 19 May however got here ahead to The Sun after changing into pissed off that the person was nonetheless on air a month later.
The mom mentioned her little one informed her that they had additionally acquired a fee of £1,000 by way of PayPal in June which prompt that the “BBC hadn’t spoken to this man” within the weeks after the preliminary grievance.
The presenter is now off-air and the BBC has reportedly launched an investigation, though the company has not confirmed this.
Several political figures have been essential of the BBC’s dealing with of the allegations, with Labour’s shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves telling Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme that the allegations had been “deeply concerning”.
“The idea that some presenters think they act with impunity and they can get away with these sorts of things – it does call into question the ethics, the investigations, how long these things take,” she mentioned.
“And the BBC, but also other broadcasters, do need to get a grip because we seem to lurch from one scandal to another, and more needs to be done.”
Source: information.sky.com”