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Can the author add an update to the end of the article to confirm that Mercer subsequently failed to repeat the allegations outside of parliamentary privilege where he could be sued if they were incorrect. Seems only fair to Day to give some balance.

If Mercer hasn’t got the confidence to repeat his comments outside of privilege then the news organisations should be calling him out on it.

More generally am I the only one getting a bit fed up with parliamentary privilege being used in this way? Its purpose was intended so that MPs when debating issues could not be sued for expressing their opinions if incidental parts of their comments were subsequently found to be incorrect. It has now been abused so that MPs plan to say something potentially defamatory (or in breach of court order) knowing that it will be reported as news but depriving any defamed party of redress. Indeed in this case Mercer has linked to a recording of his comments on his own twitter feed but they are still protected by privilege. To my mind it hs now become a form of parliamentary bullying.

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