Lord Tebbit accused the BBC today of "debased standards" after inviting him to take part in a programme with the man who planted a bomb at the Grand Hotel in Brighton in 1984.

The former Cabinet minister was seriously injured in the IRA bombing and his wife Margaret confined to a wheelchair.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph he said he found it "distasteful" that the corporation was elevating the bomber, Patrick Magee, to celebrity status.

Lord Tebbit said he could not forgive Magee, who was sentenced to eight life terms in 1986 with the recommendation that he serve a minimum of 35 years. He was released in 1999 under the Good Friday Agreement.

He wrote: "Had I taken part in this happy reunion party it would have given the ever fair-minded Miss Sue MacGregor the opening to invite me to forgive Mr Magee.

"But I am weary of explaining that forgiveness is not a one-way street. The transgressor cannot be forgiven unless he acknowledges the evil of what he had done, shows remorse and repentance.

"It seems we are to be encouraged not merely to accept Mr Magee as a respectable human but to admire and - most sickeningly of all - to like him.

"To be fair to the programme makers, I was invited to their jolly morning to swap anecdotes on the rival attractions of being buried under a few tons of masonry and rubble for a few hours, or being detained in a prison for a very few years.

"I could perhaps have asked Mr Magee for a goodwill message to my wife, whose life sentence to imprisonment in a wheelchair has not yet been commuted to some lesser inconvenience."

Lord Tebbit was to take part this Sunday on the Radio 4 programme The Reunion, hosted by Sue MacGregor.

Guests will include Jo Berry, the daughter of MP Sir Anthony Berry, who was one of five people killed, and Harvey Thomas, the former Tory press officer who fell three floors in the bombing at the Conservative Party conference.

A BBC spokesman told the Telegraph she was surprised by Lord Tebbit's reaction.

"We knew in advance about his views so he was never asked to be in the same room as Patrick Magee," she said.

"He offered to do a pre-recorded interview and has also written a letter to Magee, extracts of which will be read on the programme."

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