Mitchell ‘humiliated’ by Tower Block of Commons
By politics.co.uk staff
Labour MP Austin Mitchell has hit back at the producers of the popular Tower Block of Commons programme, saying they humiliated him.
The Great Grimsby MP said he was portrayed as “greedy and out of touch” on the programme, which he starred in with Lib Dem Mark Oaten, and Conservatives Nadine Dorries and Tim Loughton.
Love Productions, which made the show, said it was surprised by his views.
The programme placed MPs in some of Britain’s toughest estates, which he took as an appropriate way to promote council housing.
“I should have turned them down. All the smarter Labour MPs did,” he wrote on his blog.
“Naively I accepted. Here was a chance to put the case for council housing.
“Big mistake. Love didn’t want to plead for improved conditions for council tenants but to humiliate MPs.
“It’s easy to show us as greedy (although they didn’t pay us), out of touch (though we knew more about the people than them) and incompetent (almost as much as their production techniques). They duly did so.
“So five MPs – and particularly me – were allowed to make fools of ourselves.”
Love Productions said: “There’s been a dialogue with MPs throughout production, all of whom have viewed the programmes before transmission, to ensure they fairly reflected what happened.
“Love and Channel 4 cannot be responsible for what others write about the series, and neither Channel 4 nor Love Productions briefed the press as Austin Mitchell suggests.
“We certainly did not set out to humiliate the MPs taking part and we don’t believe the end result does so.”
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