Police branded 'inept' over handling of raid on Sir Cliff Richard's home

A letter from lawyers acting for Cliff Richard sent to the chair of the Home Affairs Select Committe said:

Responding to the findings of The Home Affairs Committee, South Yorkshire Police said it believed its actions were "within policy and well intended" but admitted they were "ultimately flawed" with regard the handing of a raid on Sir Cliff Richard's home in August.

The BBC said it was pleased a report by the Home Affairs Committee confirmed it had acted "perfectly properly" in its handling of its broadcast of a raid on Sir Cliff Richard's home.

A BBC spokesman said: “The committee chairman has already said that the BBC acted ‘perfectly properly’ in handling this story, and we’re pleased today’s report confirms this.”

Sir Cliff Richard has suffered ‘enormous, irreparable damage to his reputation’ as a result of the BBC broadcasting live coverage of a police raid on his home, MPs have said.

The Home Affairs Select Committee has called South Yorkshire Police's handling of the raid, broadcast live on the BBC in August, as "inept".

Committee chairman Keith Vaz said: "No British citizen should have to watch their home being raided by the police live on television.

"Sir Cliff Richard has suffered enormous and irreparable damage to his reputation and he is owed an apology over the way matters were handled."

Home Affairs Committee Chairman Keith Vaz said email exchanges between the BBC and South Yorkshire Police 'could be mistaken for a script from The Bill'.

Mr Vaz said: "South Yorkshire Police's handling of this situation was utterly inept. The force allowed itself to hand over sensitive information to a journalist and granted him privileged access to the execution of a search warrant.

"The email exchanges could easily be mistaken for a script from The Bill. The force should have refused to co-operate and explained to senior BBC News executives why the premature broadcasting of a story, which they claimed the journalist threatened, would have prejudiced the investigation."

South Yorkshire Police has been branded "inept" by MPs for its handling of a raid, broadcast live on the BBC, on the home of Sir Cliff Richard.

The raid on the pop singer's home in Berkshire was broadcast live on the BBC in August after the broadcaster was tipped off in advance.

The chief constable of South Yorkshire Police told MPs the force was convinced the BBC would run a story about the investigation without a deal so felt it had no option but to work with the broadcaster.

In a report published today, The Home Affairs Select Committee said that, when the corporation’s reporter "threatened to break the story prematurely unless he was given inside access to the raid on Sir Cliff’s home, South Yorkshire Police should not have tried to cut a deal with him".

The MPs concluded that the force should have approached senior BBC executives to explain the damage that such premature disclosure could do to the investigation.

"In the absence of any such approach from South Yorkshire, the BBC was well within its rights to run the story, although as a result Sir Cliff himself has suffered enormous, irreparable damage to his reputation", the MPs said.

Sir Cliff, who was on holiday at the time of the raid, has denied any wrongdoing over the allegations, which date back to the 1980s and involve an underage boy. He has been interviewed under caution by police, but neither arrested nor charged