 The BBC has been urged to act 'very swiftly' to deal with the claims that an unnamed presenter is alleged to have paid a teenager for sexually explicit images. Government minister Victoria Atkins described the claims reported by the Sun as 'very, very serious' as questions over the broadcaster's handling of the situation were raised. The newspaper said the star paid the person, said to have been 17 when the payments began, £35,000 in exchange for the images. In the latest claim, the young person's mother said she saw a picture of the presenter on her child's phone 'sitting on a sofa in his house in his underwear'. The mother said she was told it was 'a picture from some kind of video call' and looked like he was 'getting ready for my child to perform for him'. The family were said to have complained to the BBC on May 19 but became frustrated that the star remained on air. He is understood not to be due on air in the near future. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The government minister appeared on the Laura Kuenssberg show this morning (Picture: PA) Ms Atkins, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, told Sky's Sophy Ridge on Sunday: 'These are very, very serious allegations and the BBC have said they have processes in place. 'But as public attention and concern grows the BBC is going to have to act very swiftly to deal with these allegations and to set out what they are doing to investigate them.' Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves urged the broadcasters to 'speed up their processes' in investigating such allegations. The Labour MP said: 'I do feel that I often come on this programme and we do start with another crisis at the BBC. 'The BBC do need to speed up their processes, it looks like these issues were raised in May, we're now in July and the presenter stayed on air. 'That's not good enough so the BBC){kind=link}
NEWS… BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT
The BBC has been urged to act ‘very swiftly’ to deal with the claims that an unnamed presenter is alleged to have paid a teenager for sexually explicit images.
Government minister Victoria Atkins described the claims reported by the Sun as ‘very, very serious’ as questions over the broadcaster’s handling of the situation were raised.
The newspaper said the star paid the person, said to have been 17 when the payments began, £35,000 in exchange for the images.
In the latest claim, the young person’s mother said she saw a picture of the presenter on her child’s phone ‘sitting on a sofa in his house in his underwear’.