Lord Patten hits out at 'impertinent' questions from MPs

BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten became embroiled in a bizarre exchange with Conservative MP Philip Davies today which descended into talk of toilet habits.

Lord Patten was appearing in front of the culture, media and sport committee to face questions over the BBC’s handling of the Jimmy Savile case.

Davies asked Patten to provide a full itinerary of his daily work – a request that was rejected on the grounds it was “impertinent”.

When Davies pushed again for an answer, Patten went on the offensive.

He said: "I think you're entitled to know how much time I'm spending, I think you're entitled to put down freedom of information requests for how many days I spend in the office, or how many days I spend doing other things.

"But if you think I am going to do a diary for you in order to satisfy some populist pursuit of somebody you didn't want to run an organisation which you don't want to exist, you are kidding yourself.

"Do you want to know my toilet habits? What else do you want to know?"