The BBC Trust has ruled that Labour MP Diane Abbott should not have been paid for recent appearances on This Week.

The BBC are reporting that: 

'The BBC Trust has ruled that Labour MP Diane Abbott should not have been paid for recent appearances on flagship political programme This Week.

Ms Abbott, a regular guest with Tory MP Michael Portillo and presenter Andrew Neil, has been paid thousands in appearance fees.

The BBC claimed rules banning payments to MPs representing their parties did not apply as This Week was not a "normal" political show.

But this was rejected by the Trust.

The Trust also ruled the MP's appearances had been "too frequent" since she became a shadow minister.

In January crossbench peer Lord Laird complained that Ms Abbott had received five payments of £839 and one of £869 for appearances on This Week.

The BBC's editorial guidelines state that MPs should not be paid for appearances where they are "speaking as a member of their party or expressing political views".

The guidelines allow for the payment of a realistic "disturbance fee" to cover the time and inconvenience i
involved in appearing in a broadcast but Lord Laird argued that the payments to Ms Abbott went beyond this.'

 Well that's settled then? Well no, not really as the last line of the report makes clear:

'A spokeswoman for BBC News said that they "note the findings" of the Trust.'

 Ah the BBC, will they ignore the ruling of the BBC Trust? After all it is a Labour shadow minister whose nose needs to be kept in the public trough.