PANORAMA AND THE MAYOR OF TOWER HAMLETS

That this House believes that the recent Panorama programme about the Mayor of Tower Hamlets was petty, ill-informed and politically-motivated; queries how much of the licence fee was spent to produce a programme which alleged that the Mayor, as chief executive, had made an executive decision to move around £2 million in grants to organisations which have a Bangladeshi or Somali chair; points out that around £1.6 million of a £9.7 million programme goes to organisations with a Bengali or Somali chair, which is 16.5 per cent, while ethnic communities are over 35 per cent of the population; urges the BBC Trust to cast judgment on a programme which can only have been intended to influence the outcome of May's elections; and calls on the Communities Minister to make a statement to the House, rather than on television, which exonerates the Mayor.