John Leech
Main Page: John Leech (Liberal Democrat - Manchester, Withington)Urgent Questions are proposed each morning by backbench MPs, and up to two may be selected each day by the Speaker. Chosen Urgent Questions are announced 30 minutes before Parliament sits each day.
Each Urgent Question requires a Government Minister to give a response on the debate topic.
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Maria Miller
The right hon. Gentleman makes a colourful intervention. I remind him gently that it was his party that put in place the present structure. We will make sure that in the long term we have a structure that can protect what I have already said is one of our iconic national institutions.
Mr John Leech (Manchester, Withington) (LD)
I welcome the Secretary of State’s opening comments. The recent catalogue of senior management failings has given the BBC’s opponents the ammunition to attack what is, for the most part, a great broadcasting institution. So does the right hon. Lady agree that the decision to award a pay-off worth twice the amount of the contract gives the BBC’s opponents a green light to maintain their attack, rather than giving the BBC an opportunity to learn from its mistakes?
Maria Miller
It is right to say that it is difficult to justify the level of payment that has been talked about. I hope that the level of concern about that is being noted by the BBC Trust and, indeed, by Mr Entwistle himself.