The BBC’s Rob Burley has also released a statement saying that Abudullah’s Twitter account had been temporarily deactivated when they looked. He claims the corporation “carried out a number of other routine checks”…

“For those wondering how, given his tweets, Abudullah Patel made it onto the debate last night. The answer: his Twitter account had been deactivated, his tweets could not be read and his account did not exist when searched for…

It was AFTER the show that Mr Patel reactivated his account revealing his tweets. 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.”

So what vetting did they use..?

UPDATE: People were replying to Abdullah’s twitter account over the weekend, meaning it can’t have been deactivated at that point. Exactly when is the BBC suggesting it conducted the vetting..?

UPDATE II: The BBC now say they “checked his social media on Monday.”

h/t: James Manning-Monro