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Conservative minister Ken Clarke has described the media coverage of former youth police commissioner Paris Brown as “disgraceful”.
Speaking before last week’s broadcast of Question Time on BBC One, Clarke said he felt “very sorry for her”.
He was joined on the panel by Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee, former Labour minister David Blunkett, ex-Liberal Democrat leader Ming Campbell and former Daily Telegraph editor Charles Moore.
Brown, 17, stepped down from the £15,000-a-year as youth police commissioner for Kent last week after twitter messages written by her were published in newspapers.
“It’s ludicrous the way she was treated by the newspapers,” Clarke said in comments before the broadcast. “It is scandalous the way they treated her like they’d treat David [Blunkett] and myself.
“I find it disgraceful the way she was handled by the media.”
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