BBC Broke Its Own Rules

The BBC reports that it has broken its own rules wrt paying politicians for appearing on the BBC as representatives of their own party.

It seems that Diane Abbott should not have been paid £5K for her six recent appearances on "This Week".

As per the BBC:

"The Trust has ruled that Labour MP Diane Abbott should not have been paid for recent appearances on flagship political programme This Week.

Ms Abbott, a regular guest with Tory MP Michael Portillo and presenter Andrew Neil, has been paid thousands in appearance fees.

The BBC claimed rules banning payments to MPs representing their parties did not apply as This Week was not a "normal" political show.

But this was rejected by the Trust.

The Trust also ruled the MP's appearances had been "too frequent" since she became a shadow minister.

Complaint
In January crossbench peer Lord Laird complained that Ms Abbott had received five payments of £839 and one of £869 for appearances on This Week.

The BBC's editorial guidelines state that MPs should not be paid for appearances where they are "speaking as a member of their party or expressing political views"."