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Your support makes all the difference.A Conservative MP has pulled out of a BBC interview after she was told she could not veto the questions she would be asked, the broadcaster has reported.
Lucy Allan, the MP for Telford, told BBC Shropshire that she wanted to be “sure that malicious false allegations made by 'aliases' were not repeated as if fact on a mainstream serious political programme”.
She later denied the accusations, posting on Twitter: “I never asked to veto questions - this is getting pretty nasty. I wonder who made that slur up.” She added that she was “hoping for an apology” from the broadcaster.
The interview was due to take place on the BBC Politics Show on Friday, the corporation said.
Ms Allan has been at the centre of a number of controversies in the months since her election in 2015.
She was widely criticised for adding the words “unless you die” to a message she received from a constituent criticising her for voting for intervention in Syria – before posting it online.
She said she had received the added portion of the message from another constituent and had simply combined the two messages. Critics accused her of faking a death threat, however.
In the weeks following this incident, multiple former Conservative activists and staffers who worked with Ms Allan also accused her of bullying. Angry voicemail messages the MP had left on their phones were leaked to the press and met with criticism.
Ms Allan says local Labour councillors in Telford are orchestrating a negative campaign against her since she won the seat. The councillors named by the MP have denied the allegations.
Telford’s constituency has been represented by Labour since its creation on its current boundaries but was narrowly won by Ms Allan in 2015 by fewer than 1,000 votes.
Prior to her election Ms Allan served as a councillor in Wandsworth, in London, and lobbied for improvements to the UK child protection system.
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