Jeremy Vine has come under fire for alleging that the jogger who pushed a pedestrian into the path of a bus must have been a banker.

The BBC presenter was yesterday accused of trivialising the horrific attack and acting in ‘poor taste’, after he set up an online poll that encouraged people to guess the profession of the jogger.

Yet he only gave three options for the unidentified man’s job, all of which were from the financial sector, prompting criticism that he was being ‘prejudicial’, fuelling stereotypes and should remain ‘neutral’. Tory MP Andrew Bridgen described Vine’s tweet, which has since been deleted, as a ‘huge lack of judgment’, adding that he should not have used the Putney Bridge attack to start a ‘class war’.

Vine, who is on holiday from his Radio 2 lunchtime show, also faced criticism from his followers on social media who said the poll was ‘bad taste at best’, ‘very insulting’ and was not a suitable subject to approach with ‘frivolity’.

Police have launched an appeal to trace the attacker, who was caught on CCTV pushing a woman off the pavement of Putney Bridge into the path of a bus.

The 33-year-old woman had been on her way to work at the time of the attack, which took place on Putney Bridge in May, and only narrowly avoided being hit by the bus because the driver swerved out of the way.

Vine deleted the tweet after it had been online for four hours yesterday afternoon, but not before it had attracted over 100 comments and more than 1,000 votes. Bridgen told the Daily Mail: ‘I bet the attacker doesn’t earn as much as Jeremy Vine. The licence-fee payer would expect better from someone costing them around £15,000 a week.

‘That vicious and irresponsible attack, if it hadn’t been for the bus driver’s very quick actions, it is highly likely that woman would have either been severely injured or killed. If that bus had hit her head, that would have killed her. ‘It is not a matter to embark on a sort of class war, especially when you are earning £750,000-a-year.’

One of Vine’s __ followers on Twitter wrote: ‘A very insulting tweet to those in such professions, not all of whom will be consumed with their own self-righteousness, unlike yourself.’

Another commented: ‘If there is any attempt at irony in this bizarre tweet, it fails badly. It wouldn’t surprise (or disappoint) me if it got you sacked.’

A third wrote: ‘Or let’s guess his nationality, or religion?!?! Just as pointless, prejudicial & inflammatory.’

Last night, police said that the appeal had prompted a ‘huge response’ from the public since releasing the video on Tuesday.

Sgt Mat Knowles, of the Met Police, said his team was now following a number of ‘viable leads’ in their search for the jogger.

Prisoners should be able to use iPads to Skype their families from behind bars, a Government report recommends today.

They should also be considered for temporary release at Christmas to build relationships with their children, it says.

Tory peer Lord Farmer said job descriptions for guards should include 'developing personal relationships with their prisoners', with inmates given the chance to do face painting or play table football with their children during extended visits. The multi-millionaire hedge fund boss, who was ennobled by David Cameron after he donated millions to the party, said boosting links between offenders and their families reduces the likelihood of them reoffending when they are released. But last night critics branded it soft justice. The Ministry of Justice, which commissioned the review, last night said it had already started drawing up a plan on how to implement its recommendations. Justice Secretary David Lidington said: 'Families can play a significant role in supporting an offender and I am grateful to Lord Farmer for his dedication and research on this important issue. 'We are committed to transforming prisons into places of safety and reform and we recognise the need to provide those in our care with stable environments, and opportunities to change their behaviour.'

Lord Farmer said empty prison cells should be converted into rooms where inmates whose families are unable to visit are able to have Skype calls home. Alternatively prisoners could be given access to tablet computers, such as iPads, for the video calls, he suggested. The report called for more prisoners to be given the chance of temporary release so they are able to maintain family ties and prepare for life outside near the end of their sentences. Lord Farmer wrote: 'It would enable them to attend parent-teacher evenings and other meetings at their children's school…

'It also allows families to adjust to having the person around more and is particularly beneficial for children who may feel less comfortable around their parent after a long period of separation.'

He urged prison governors to consider how temporary release could be used for special occasions such as family birthdays or Christmas when children miss their parents most.

Prisons guards should be given annual refresher courses to help them understand 'family issues' that affect inmates, with a requirement for them to build bonds with them, the report said.

'Officer job descriptions must include developing personal relationships with their prisoners. 

Driving test examiners could be given body cameras following attacks by failed candidates.

Around 240 incidents of physical or verbal abuse were reported last year – up from approximately 180 in 2015, the Driver and Vehicle Standards agency (DVSA) said.

Attacks on all staff – including vehicle testers and roadside enforcement officers – rose by around 50 per cent to more than 300 over the same period. The DVSA has launched a crackdown as a result, including trialling body cameras for front-line staff. They will initially be given to roadside workers but could be rolled out to include driving test examiners if they prove effective, the agency said. Cameras are already used by many police forces to record their officers' interactions with the public.

The DVSA also pledged to make abusive learner drivers take their next test elsewhere and to refer all incidents of threats and physical assault to the police.

DVSA chief executive Gareth Llewellyn said: 'We do not tolerate anyone abusing, threatening or assaulting them. Whatever has happened, don't take it out on our staff. If you do, we'll press for the strongest possible penalties.'

 'Our message is clear - whatever has happened, don't take it out on our staff. If you do, we'll press for the strongest possible penalties.  RAC road safety spokesman Pete Williams said: 'Examiners at the DVSA play a vital role in ensuring the safety of drivers and vehicles on our roads on a daily basis.

'It's therefore disappointing to see such a marked increase in the level of verbal and physical abuse they are encountering from the very people they are trying to help.

'The majority of UK drivers and road users will wholeheartedly support a zero-tolerance approach to such behaviour.'

The DVSA said there have also been cases of vehicle examiners and roadside enforcement staff being bullied.

A driver and operator from a Shropshire scaffolding firm made a false claim against a DVSA employee who discovered offences relating to the recording of drivers' hours.

Wales traffic commissioner Nick Jones rejected the firm's accusation and concluded that the 'appalling behaviour' of the driver had been condoned by his 'irresponsible' employer, resulting in a 'significantly disproportionate' complaint made against an experienced traffic examiner, the DVSA reported.

Mr Jones said: 'My fellow traffic commissioners and I welcome the agency's campaign to tackle the unacceptable abuse which staff may face whilst carrying out their professional duties.' 

Police are closing in on the jogger who pushed a woman in front of a bus on Putney Bridge as responses flood into a public appeal.

Officers are following a number of lines of inquiry in their hunt, after releasing shocking CCTV footage of the man barging into the 33-year-old pedestrian.

The woman was lucky to escape serious injury after a bus driver swerved to avoid her on the bridge in south west london 

Today, the Metropolitan Police said that officers had received a 'good response' after calling for information on the incident. Police are closing in on the jogger who pushed a woman in front of a bus on Putney Bridge as responses flood into a public appeal.

Officers are following a number of lines of inquiry in their hunt, after releasing shocking CCTV footage of the man barging into the 33-year-old pedestrian.

The woman was lucky to escape serious injury after a bus driver swerved to avoid her on the bridge in south west london 

Today, the Metropolitan Police said that officers had received a 'good response' after calling for information on the incident. Officers also claimed the jogger ran the other way across the bridge around 15 minutes later and the victim attempted to speak to him, but 'he did not acknowledge her'.

The jogger is described as a white man, aged early to mid 30s, with brown eyes and short brown hair. He was wearing a light grey t-shirt and dark blue shorts.

Speaking earlier this week, sergeant Mat Knowles said: 'After he pushed her he ran across the bridge and 15 minutes later came back. 'By this time the members of the public who had helped the woman were gone and she tried to talk to him as he ran past her but he just ignored her.

'We believe he is from the Fulham area and she is from Putney.' 

'We are keen to speak to the jogger in the CCTV about what happened that morning. We would urge him or anyone who recognises him to get in touch with us as soon as possible.' 

A senior source from the bus company Go Ahead London said it was only down to the slow speed of the vehicle that the accident did not result in serious injury. 'It is just shocking, the entire top half of this woman was in the road very close to the bus's front tyres and this man just ran off. 

A 15-year-old aspiring architect was murdered on his way home with a samurai sword by a gang of balaclava-clad youths. 

Jermaine Goupall suffered multiple stab wounds at around 11pm last night after he spent a day with friends at the cinema.

Devastated family said the teenager was 'adored by his friends and relatives' and was popular in the community.

Witnesses claim the gang of thugs attacked Jermaine and a friend, repeatedly stabbing the teenager while the other boy hid beneath a car.  

It came just hours after another teenager, 19, was stabbed to death in Peckham with police launching murder investigations into both incidents. At the family home Jermaine's father Stanley, an electrical engineer, 50, said: 'Jermaine was a lovely person and adored by the community and his friends and family.

'Nobody had nothing bad to say about him, he had a good heart and was such a lovely boy. 'Jermaine would put everyone before himself and would help anyone.

'He was into badminton and was a great at swimming, he enjoyed sports and loved his cat Happy.

'He was very good at maths and wanted to be a gas engineer and had talked about being an architect, he was very talented.

'He was very kind hearted and liked to share. He was a sociable boy who was loved by everyone and could talk to everyone regardless of whether it was children or adults.

I'm doing this because I want the perpetrators to know what a lovely boy my son was.'

Tilisha Goupall, 25, Jermaine's sister said: 'Last night the police rang the door bell and before I had messaged him on Snapchat and he did not respond, usually he will respond and say where he is and usually we pick him up. 'The police came shortly after 11pm, he had been out with friends all day and had gone to the cinema and then went out for dinner at a restaurant, he was catching up with his friends and was on his way home when it happened.

'He had nothing to do with them and was in the wrong place at the wrong time, he was an innocent boy.'

Jermaine's friend Malachi, 14, added: 'He was a good person, into football and he was a good friend and cared for other people and was loved by many.

Police have shot dead three people in Kenya after riots erupted in response to opposition leader Raila Odinga's claim the country's election was stolen.

He said the electronic voting system had been hacked using the identity of a murdered IT official, with protests breaking out straight after his speech. 

Two people were killed in Nairobi as they took advantage of the protests to steal, Nairobi police chief Japheth Koome said, with one being shot in the head. 

Kenyan police opened fire on people protesting election results earlier in another opposition stronghold - South Mugirango constituency - killing one person.   

President Uhuru Kenyatta appears headed for re-election but his rival Odinga has insisted that the results have been manipulated, ratcheting up tensions. Kenyatta was leading with 54.35 percent and Odinga had 44.77 percent after votes at more than 39,320 of the 40,883 polling stations were counted, according to the election commission. But Odinga has also published what he deems to be the true vote tally on Twitter, with himself on 8.1 million votes and Kenyatta on 7.2 million.  

Riot police engaged in running battles with protesters in the opposition stronghold of Kisumu in western Kenya.

Police fired teargas as several hundred protesters in the neighbourhood of Kondele - an epicentre of violence after disputed 2007 polls - set fire to barricades and tyres and placed rocks in the streets.

'These results are fake, it is a sham. They cannot be credible,' Odinga told a press conference in the early hours of the morning as partial results fell quickly via an electronic tallying system aimed at preventing fraud. 

He later detailed accusations of how hackers had gained entry to the system using the identity of top IT official Chris Msando, who was found murdered and tortured late last month. 'This is an attack on our democracy. The 2017 general election was a fraud,' said Odinga, claiming detailed evidence of the hacker's movements. He would not say how he got the information, as he wanted to 'protect his source'.  

The chairman of Kenya's election commission said the allegations will be investigated.

Chairman Wafula Chebukati said an audit will probably be ordered to address concerns about the system used for yesterday's elections. 

 The silencing of legitimate opinion continues.

The latest victim of their self-styled ‘purge’ is Google engineer James Damore, the guy behind ‘Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber,’ a paper outlining his thoughts on Diversity and Inclusion in Silicon Valley.

In his 3,300 word, ten page manifesto he highlights the reasons for the gender gap in tech, current discriminatory practises used to correct that gap and Google’s left-leaning political bias.

'The google engineer who wrote a memo that argued women aren't biologically fit for tech jobs is out at the company'. He argued no such thing.

Personally, I don't agreed with every word of it but I consider it to be about as inflammatory as the cucumber in my Pimms. 'When it comes to diversity and inclusion, Google’s left bias has created a politically correct monoculture that maintains its hold by shaming dissenters into silence. This silence removed any checks against encroaching extremist and authoritarian policies’ he wrote.

But whether or not we agree with every one of his sentiments, many of us will identify with the above that James been brave enough to say.

Too many no longer have a voice because the list of things we cannot say is longer than the list of things we can. And too often it is voices from the right that are presented as wrong. In his detailed analysis entitled ‘Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber’, he argues it is biological differences which play a role in the shortage of women in tech. And that Conservatives voices are silenced.

And, as if to underline his point, James Damore has just been fired.

Google CEO Sunder Pichai cut short his family holiday to deal with the fall out, making it sound like he just lost his father and mother in some kind of horrible accident. ‘This has been a very difficult time’ Sunder began, in a memo to all staff, many of whom were left frothing at the mouth at James’ cautious memo which dared to point out women are a bit different than men.

‘Firstly, let me say that we strongly support the right of Googlers to express themselves, and much of what was in that memo is fair to debate, regardless of whether a majority of Googlers disagree with it,’

You see what he did there? He already rallied the mob behind him, and announced that his army was bigger than your army, a ‘vast majority think you are wrong’ and therefore you must be.

This is the same mentality as those who click on petitions, imagining numbers of clicks equate to some kind of moral barometer on life.

And by a cunning sleight of hand Pichai asserts Goggle supports the right of his staff to express ideas. (Despite firing them if ‘the majority’ believe they are wrong). He continues:

‘To suggest a group of our colleagues have traits that make them biologically less suited to our work is offensive and not OK. It is contrary to our basic values and our Code of Conduct which expects each googler to do their utmost to create a workplace culture that is free of harassment, intimidation, bias and unlawful discrimination.’

I appreciate I am barely a woman and have my own bias, but no matter what angry women with armpit hair say, there are basic biological differences between men and women.

I am offering to stand naked in front of a mirror with Sundar to point these out in intimate detail if he will accept. My own testicular fortitude may be a barrier to his acceptance.