BBC facing questions over 'anti-Semitic' Imam who grilled Tory leadership hopefuls during live debate

The BBC is facing questions after an alleged anti-Semitic Imam and a Labour Party council candidate were allowed to grill Tory leadership hopefuls on Islamophobia during last night's live debate.

Abdullah Patel asked Boris Johnson if his remarks on Islam "had consequences", but the Imam's Twitter account revealed a number of controversial posts including claiming the abuse of Jews was being "abused by the Right" to further a political agenda.

Meanwhile, the man who asked the last question was Aman Thacker -  a man hired by Labour HQ as a legal assistant in 2018 and who stood for election for Southwark council in the same year, according to Guido.

Referring to the inclusion of the Imam, MP Nadine Dorries said the "fault was with the BBC" insisting the broadcaster "should have checked" before allowing Mr Patel to take part in the live debate.

She added: "Instead they used an Imam with a truly disturbing anti semitic twitter feed. It was a wholly biased, disgraceful 'get Boris' exercise. Why should anyone pay a licence fee for that level of attempted sabotage?"

After his views were brought to light, BBC presenter Nicky Campbell said on Twitter: "I would like to apologise. We had the Imam from the BBC Tory leadership debate on our programme this morning.

"His social media comments have been extremely disturbing. We should have checked. We didn’t. I’m sorry."

But later on Wednesday morning, the BBC issued a statement saying: "We carried out background research into the online and social media profiles of all our questioners for last night's debate.

"Following the debate, one individual reactivated a public Twitter account he had previously deactivated, whose tweets were not visible during our research period.

"Had we been aware of the views he expressed there, he would not have been selected."

Rob Burley, editor of BBC Live Political Programmes, added: "We wouldn't have put him on the programme if these were public before broadcast but they were not. We also carried out a number of other routine checks which didn't uncover anything untoward."

Mr Patel confirmed on Twitter it was him who asked the question in a thread accusing Boris Johnson of being "disappointing and deluded" in his response, during which he forgot the Imam's name.

Having been accused of being an anti-Semite, he told the BBC he could not remember all of his tweets, but defended his posts, saying: "I have not criticised the Jewish community. Criticism of Israel is not the same as criticism of Jews."

He added that he was "100 percent sure" there were no tweets criticising Jewish people, but said he would stand by messages critical of Israel's policies.

The Imam's controversial tweets

Abdullah Patel's Twitter account was jammed with extreme views before it was closed down.

They date back as far as 2014, but it is understood he deactivated the account on Monday during the time the BBC were vetting potential guests.

After the broadcast went out, he re-activated the account, only for it to be taken down again Wednesday morning.

In a tweet The Telegraph has decided not to republish, he compared Gaza in 2019 to Auschwitz concentration camps.

Mr Patel also tweeted controversial views on women, saying: "Men are the predators, but women need to realise this and be smarter. It takes two to tango, and if you put yourself in that position, don't expect every man to pass up the opportunity to take advantage of you."

The Telegraph has asked Twitter whether the account - with the username AbdullahPatel94 - has been deleted by the user or if the social media site has suspended it.

Mr Patel suspended from school

The Imam was also a deputy headteacher at an Islamic primary school in Gloucester.

He has since been suspended in light of his views.

In a statement issued on the Al-Ashraf Primary School website, Yakub Patel - the chair of the trust which runs the schools - said: "Following some of the comments attributed to Mr Patel in the media this morning, the Trust has decided to suspend him from all school duties with immediate effect until a full investigation is carried out.

"The school and Trust do not share the views attributed to him."

The Imam's question and the responses

During the debate, Mr Patel asked the five candidates whether they believed words had consequences, and said he had seen first hand the impact of Islamophobic rhetoric on his community.

Boris Johnson said he was "sorry for the offence" his comments about veiled Muslim women looking like "letter boxes" and "bank robbers" had caused, while Michael Gove condemned Islamophobia as "repugnant" and attacked Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn for comments he claimed were "disgusting" and anti-Semitic.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid urged all the candidates to commit to an external investigation into the issue within the Tory Party, and his rivals nodded in agreement.

In his response to the question, Mr Johnson said he believed his Muslim great-grandfather would have been "very proud" to have seen him become Foreign Secretary.

He added that, when his great-grandfather came to the UK in 1912, "he did so because he knew it was a beacon of generosity and openness and a willingness to welcome people from around the world", adding: "If I am prime minister, I will ensure that that is the way our country acts and behaves."

At one point he appeared to forget Mr Patel's name, referring to him as "my friend over there", before presenter Emily Maitlis interjected: "Abdullah".