BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten should resign after he attacked a parliamentary committee which criticised the size of the pay-off to the corporation’s director-general George Entwistle, a senior Labour MP has said.
Barry Sheerman said he was shocked by Lord Patten’s claims the public accounts committee, which monitors spending across Whitehall, was unfair in its criticism of Mr Entwistle’s £450,000 pay-off because it did not take into account the corporation’s legal arguments.
Lord Patten said: “You are not supposed to criticise the public accounts committee… in politics it is sort of the equivalent of swearing in church.
“But I do think the treatment we have had from them is a bit shabby.”
He added: “I do not think they have been fair because they did not look at our legal arguments at all.”
Mr Sheerman also claimed the comment showed the trust’s chairman did not understand public anger about the way the BBC spent public money.
