Hi °C | Lo °C Carol Thatcher will no longer be working on The One Show, the BBC said last night.
Her future with the programme was questioned after she referred to a tennis player as a “golliwog”.
The daughter of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher made the remark after filming the show last Thursday during a conversation with presenter Adrian Chiles and several guests.
Thatcher was immediately challenged, but only apologised on Monday and dismissed the comment as a “joke”.
She is a regular contributor to the magazine show and the programme’s website praises “her dry, self-deprecating wit and tenacious spirit”.
The remark was made during a conversation about the Australian Open tennis tournament, in reference to a player who had recently been knocked out of the men’s singles draw.
Thatcher’s job as a roving reporter for the programme required her to report on a wide variety of issues and to meet a range of people throughout the country, many of whom were unlikely to agree that her comment was acceptable even as a joke, the sources said.
They said the corporation considered any language of a racist nature to be wholly unacceptable.
