Another day, another drama over at the Beeb. The BBC has apologised to ex-Reform MP Rupert Lowe and his Rape Gang Inquiry, acknowledging that it should have given the parliamentarian more time to respond to reports that he was being probed for not registering donations in time.

Lowe was cleared of breaching MP rules

In a statement released on its website, the corporation described how it ran an article on the investigation by parliament’s standards watchdog into whether Lowe had not registered donations in time and therefore breached the MPs code of conduct. It noted:

The BBC approached Mr Lowe for comment and published an article reporting the investigation before receiving his reply, which was judged appropriate since the fact of an investigation was in the public domain.

Although the story was accurate and BBC guidance allows some latitude on the time offered for right of reply in certain circumstances around contemporaneous reporting, the article also included additional details about the donations being related to a crowdfunder in support of a national inquiry into gang-based sexual exploitation across the UK, known as the Rape Gang Inquiry.

These were details about the investigation which had not been released by Parliament’s standards commissioner.

The article was updated within the hour to include a response from the Rape Gang Inquiry, but we accept that we should have given Rupert Lowe more time to respond.

As it happens, Lowe was cleared of breaching MP rules. Parliament’s standards commissioner found he still had time to declare more than £600,000 raised via a crowdfunder to support an inquiry into gang-based sexual exploitation across the UK. The Greater Yarmouth politician slammed the complaint against him as a ‘malicious attempt to shut me down’ and insisted at the time that he would be complaining to the Beeb over the way it covered the story. Who’s laughing now?