Following our story yesterday about the BBC’s “Creative Director” Alan Yentob auctioning an internship for £4,100 a  BBC spokesperson claimed:

“Alan made this commitment in order to raise money for the charity Kids Company.  He is well aware of the guidelines around access to the BBC for work experience which is why the day does not involve spending any time there.  It will instead involve shadowing him on other arts and culture projects that he is involved in.”

If this were true the auction bidder could make a claim under the Trade Descriptions Act because the auction was for the chance to “Shadow the BBC creative director for a week”.

So either the BBC press office has been mislead by Mr Yentob or the auction was run under a false description. Since we have documentation which describes the auction item as “Shadow the BBC creative director for a week” Guido suggests there should be a proper inquiry. It is always the cover-up that gets you…