Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy told Sky News at the Paris Olympics on Friday: “I think he ought to return his salary.
“I think having been arrested on such serious charges all the way back in November, to continue to receive that salary all the way through until he resigned is wrong and it’s not a good use of taxpayers’ money.
“I think most people in the country will agree with that but whether he does that or not is up to him.”
Image: Lisa Nandy speaks to Sky News
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Tim Davie, director general of the BBC, said on Thursday the corporation was aware Edwards had been arrested over the most serious category of indecent images of children when it happened.
He faced questions over why Edwards was not sacked then and why he continued to receive his salary – the highest of anybody at BBC News.
Mr Davie had an urgent meeting with Ms Nandy on Thursday to address his handling of the case.
Ms Nandy said to Sky News: “My concern is to make sure that not only are we getting the decision right in this case but we’re futureproofing the BBC so that when people come forward with concerns, when decisions like this have to be made we’re open and transparent and we’re fair and we use taxpayers money appropriately.
“This is something that matters to the director general of the BBC and it’s my job to make sure we get there.”
Mr Davie said the BBC did not sack Edwards after they were told of his arrest because the police said: ‘Look, we need to do our work in total confidence, we’ve arrested (Edwards) please keep this confidential.”
The BBC director general added: “And at that point, I think the principle is clear in my mind, and I say we thought long and hard about this, this wasn’t a knee-jerk decision.
“And it was difficult but when the police, if you think about this in terms of precedent, people do get arrested and then we’ve had situations where (there were) no charges and there’s nothing there to be followed up on.
“In this case, we knew it was serious. We knew no specifics, apart from the category of the potential offences.”
He added that if Edwards had been charged before he resigned in April, he would have been fired “immediately”.
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