BBC Newsnight apologise to working single mother for 'misrepresentation'

Wednesday 30th May 2012 – 10.11am
Author: katy.d
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The BBC have this morning apologised to Shanene Thorpe, a working single mum interviewed on Newsnight last week. Thorpe claimed that her situation had been misrepresented, and she had been humiliated by the programme.

After an online petition calling for an apology received over 20,000 signatures in seven days, Newsnight agreed to apologise. A spokesperson for the BBC told the New Statesman:

"Newsnight was sorry to hear Shanene Thorpe was unhappy following her interview. While the BBC is still yet to receive a formal complaint, Newsnight contacted Shanene to hear her concerns. We are happy to accept her contention that her current situation was not made clear and have apologised."

In her petition Miss Thorpe said that she was 'happy' to be interviewed by the programme, and that being a working single mother is 'something I'm proud of'. However, as is clear from the video, this is not the direction that the BBC took the interview, and certainly is not the angle of the clip that was aired on Wednesday 23 May.

Thorpe said:

"I was devastated to see the interview that went to air on BBC2 on Wednesday that had been edited to make it look like I was an unemployed scrounger, questioned why I didn't live with my parents and made no mention of my job with Tower Hamlets Council."
Having started working at the age of 16, Shanene receives benefits to supplement her income in order to pay the high price of rent in London. She feels she has been judged on her choice to have a child, and her decision to bring her up independently."

Despite the apology, Shanene is still disappointment, and believes that a personal phonecall is not adequate. She has reportedly said that she intends to submit a formal complaint. Here are her tweets on the matter: