Carol Thatcher in trouble at BBC over 'golliwog' remark .

Spirit wrote:The new White House gardener has already been sacked. Poor bloke only asked where the spade was.

Senior BBC executive defended the decision to drop Carol Thatcher from The One Show for referring to a tennis player as a golliwog, saying that the remark had been overheard by up to a dozen people and had clearly caused offence.

The former prime minister's daughter was dropped on Tuesday night after talks with BBC bosses. They refused to accept her written apology or her claims that the remark had been made in jest.

Jay Hunt, the controller of BBC One, said today that Ms Thatcher had made the remark in a hospitality suite in front of the presenter Adrian Chiles, comedian Jo Brand and a senior charity worker from Comic Relief. She dismissed claims that the BBC was over-reacting.

“What Carol decides to say in the privacy of her own home or in a private conversation with friends is one thing. What she says in a greenroom space, when there are 12 people [there], in her capacity as a roving reporter for the One Show is a rather different thing," Ms Hunt told BBC Radio's Today programme.

“On this occasion, her using this phrase and it being overheard and having caused offence to a number of people was totally inappropriate. It was deemed inappropriate in the circumstances for her to continue to work on a show that prides itself not just on the diversity of its production team but on the range of its coverage across the country. I think everybody will be able to see that that is not an appropriate place for her to work.”

Ms Thatcher's agent claimed yesterday that the presenter had been the victim of a BBC vendetta linked to her family name. “This was a private conversation held in private, amongst individuals in the greenroom after she had been on The One Show. There is certainly an agenda behind this ... I would say that if her name were not Thatcher we wouldn’t be talking.

“Tthis comment was made in jest over a drink and no one objected to it at the time. I think it’s absolutely outrageous that the BBC has condoned this leak. They haven’t even disciplined the member of staff and frankly we issued a fulsome apology that was rejected by them. But they should be issuing us with an apology.”

She said that she knew who had leaked the story but was not prepared to reveal that person’s name. BBC sources told The Times, however, that Thatcher’s remarks were “not a one word thing” and that other people had been appalled.

Staff at The One Show denied leaking the details of the story, which first began to circulate on Friday but were not confirmed by the BBC until Monday.

None of the parties to the conversation has disclosed the identity of the tennis player to whom Ms Thatcher was referring. It is, however, known to be a male player who was taking part in the Australian Open.

Lord Tebbit, who served in Baroness Thatcher’s Cabinet, compared the sacking of Ms Thatcher to the BBC's recent reinstatement of Jonathan Ross. “It does seem very odd that Jonathan Ross can be back broadcasting having made obscene, insulting remarks on the air, and Carol Thatcher, who said something which is allegedly highly offensive but which I rather doubt was meant to be so, in private, should be banned in this way,” said Lord Tebbit.

“It is probably a bit of a way for the BBC to get back at Carol’s mother.”

Ms Thatcher continues to work for the BBC on other programmes - she has been recording material this week for a radio feature on her mother - but Ms Hunt said that she would no longer work on The One Show.

“She still maintains that this was a comment made in jest. We have ascertained subsequently from the people who are party to that conversation that by nobody’s reckoning could it be deemed to have been used in a jokey fashion," she said.

“Do we think it is appropriate in 2009 for somebody to explain away the use of a word which is deemed by a very substantial proportion of the public to be hugely offensive as a joke? What I find sad about the entire situation is that we have given Carol ample opportunity to apologise for offence that was caused to key named individuals.

“She felt unable to do that and for that reason it is not appropriate for her to work on that particular show, but she will continue to work for the BBC and indeed is.”