Radio 4 apologises after interviewing fake MP

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Radio 4 has apologised to listeners after interviewing a man impersonating a Liberal Democrat MP earlier today.

The man, who was impersonating Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West Mike Crockart, was interviewed on the channel's World At One programme ahead of a potentially divisive vote this Thursday on plans to increase university tuition fees. The broadcaster apologised to listeners on its PM programme later this afternoon and confirmed that the man interviewed was not the MP. The audio of the interview is not included in the iPlayer stream of today's World At One.

"The World At One today broadcast an interview about tuition fees with a person wrongly believed to be Liberal Democrat MP Michael Crockart, a junior member of the government," a BBC spokeswoman told the Guardian .

"The error came about after a call to an incorrect number listed in the BBC's directory of MPs' contact details.

"The usual pre-broadcast questions were asked of the person concerned, who maintained throughout that he was Mr Crockart and appeared credible.

"Once the mistake was realised, steps were taken immediately to rectify the error and to ensure it was not repeated."

The Liberal Democrat press office was quick to clarify the error via Twitter and confirmed to Journalism.co.uk that it was not the real Crockart that featured on the programme.

Someone pretending to be Crockart was also quoted in an interview with the Evening Standard , but whether this is the same impersonator could not yet be confirmed by the Liberal Democrats office.

The Standard reported Crockart as saying: "I will be voting 100 per cent against. I'm not going to be pushed out. Resigning probably will be the only option." It has since updated its report, which now refers to the Crockart impersonator.