The Conservative Party reportedly threatened to gag the BBC because it wanted to broadcast a recording of party leader David Cameron rehearsing his speech to the spring conference in Gateshead on Friday.
According to the Mail on Sunday, the Today programme had planned to broadcast the recording on Saturday morning – five hours before Cameron was due to make the speech. But apparently the Conservatives threatened to pull Cameron out of all interviews with the BBC and ban BBC staff from going backstage at future Tory rallies if the tape was used.
A BBC spokesman told the MoS: “The reason we didn’t use it was because it was inaudible.”
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