BBC in firing line as doubts grow over sacking of Thatcher

The corporation was facing a backlash following its decision to remove Ms Thatcher from the BBC's The One Show for the off-air remark.

Earlier this week, the corporation ditched her and announced that, in the wake of the row, it had "no plans" to use her again in her regular presenting slot.

Allan Massie: Allan Massie: Remark isn't racist (and she'd laugh if you called her a silly English cow)

But a growing list of politicians, lawyers and media experts attacked the BBC, accusing it of overstepping the mark and making her a scapegoat in an era of burgeoning political correctness.

Friends of Ms Thatcher have denied she intended any racist slur, insisting she simply compared the player's hairstyle to the "Robertson's golly" that once adorned that company's jam jars.

It was reported last night she had been referring to the French tennis player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Legal experts said she would have a strong case for breach of contract against BBC bosses.

Cameron Fyfe, a Glasgow lawyer, said: "I don't think it is racist to say someone's hair resembles a children's doll. I think there has to be a crucial difference between private conversations and those that are formal as part of your employment. It's absolutely crucial that we keep that distinction, otherwise we could all be sacked tomorrow."

The BBC was under increasing pressure to explain its actions after it refused to name the tennis player concerned or the exact nature of Ms Thatcher's comments.

Burning Issue: Was BBC right to sideline Carol Thatcher for saying 'golliwog' in private?

Last night, her agent, Ali Gunn, launched a stinging attack on the corporation and said it should apologise for "condoning" the leaking of a private conversation.

Dr Richard Holloway, the chairman of the Scottish Arts Council and a former bishop of Edinburgh, described Ms Thatcher's behaviour as stupid but not necessarily racist. And he said the corporation might have overreacted in the light of the Jonathan Ross/Russell Brand scandal, in which they were suspended for leaving offensive messages on the answering machine of the Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs.

"It may be that the BBC is over-sensitive in the light of the Jonathan Ross case. It was a damned stupid thing to say. I suspect it was more ignorant than racist," he said.

Ted Brocklebank, MSP, the culture spokesman for the Scottish Tories, described the BBC's actions as "political correctness gone mad".

He said: "No-one condones racism in any shape or form, but this was an alleged comment, overheard by only two others, as I understand it, and in private. We have no idea of the context, or to whom Ms Thatcher was allegedly referring."

The whole issue was clouded further with the suggestion that she was not, in fact, referring to a black tennis player, but to the Scot Andy Murray, who is renowned for his bushy hairstyle.

But the BBC said speculation that Ms Thatcher, 55, had been referring to Murray was "wholly inaccurate", adding that she had definitely been talking about a black tennis player. The corporation declined to name him and said it considered any language of a racist nature "wholly unacceptable".

Ms Thatcher had been a regular contributor to The One Show – a daily magazine programme on BBC One – for three years and had been described as part of the family on the BBC's website.

She was dropped on Tuesday night after talks with her bosses. Her position is understood to have become untenable after she declined to issue an unconditional apology for the remark, made after filming the show last Thursday during a conversation with presenter Adrian Chiles and other guests in the backstage green-room area.

Ms Gunn claimed Ms Thatcher had been the victim of a personal vendetta. She said she knew the identity of the person who had leaked the conversation, but declined to name them.

"Obviously they know what their agenda is, and there is certainly an agenda behind this," she said.

"I would like to say that this comment was made in jest afterwards in the greenroom over a drink, and no-one objected to it at the time.

"They haven't even disciplined the member of staff (responsible for the leak] and, frankly, we issued a fulsome apology that was rejected by them."

A senior BBC insider told The Scotsman that, while the corporation has a strong contingent of people from Asian backgrounds working on its shows, black people were painfully under-represented and, therefore, the issue was particularly sensitive. Out of a team of about 200 on the staff of The One Show, including all the satellite providers, there is thought to be only one black person.

BBC sources said Ms Thatcher's remark had caused great offence to those who heard it at the time and to those members of the production team who heard about it subsequently.

Ms Thatcher's job as a roving reporter 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.

The Tory peer Lord Tebbit waded into the debate and said he could not see why referring to someone as a golliwog should be regarded as offensive, compared with previous BBC scandals over obscene comments.

He said: "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.

"It is probably a bit of a way for the BBC to get back at Carol's mother."

The Scottish media commentator Charles Fletcher, of Caledonia Media, said it was vital that private conversations were respected.

"If we cannot have a private conversation any more, there's no point in getting out of bed, and if anyone is surprised by Carol Thatcher's views, or use of vocabulary, then they should get back into bed as well. She is unreconstructed, south-east England, upper middle class.

"It wasn't said on air, it wasn't said on the show, it was allegedly said in the greenroom. So someone in the greenroom has taken offence to it, someone who maybe doesn't like Carol's attitude or success. She's great fun to work with; she's great entertainment."

However, the celebrity PR Mark Borkowski defended the BBC and condemned Ms Thatcher's language as unacceptable.

"Anyone that has the word golliwog in their vocabulary doesn't need to be on the BBC," he said.

"I think it's a totally and utterly unacceptable word. The BBC's reaction was utterly appropriate, but it is being hit from all sides now, whatever it does."

From low-key journalist, to in-your-face jungle celebrity

CAROL Thatcher, the twin sister of Mark Thatcher and daughter of Baroness Thatcher and the late Sir Denis Thatcher, was born on 15 August, 1953.

She was educated at Queenswood boarding school, Hatfield, St Paul's School for Girls and University College London.

Despite studying law, she went on to carve out a successful career as an author and journalist.

She started out as a reporter for the Sydney Morning Herald and on Australia's Channel 7. In the UK, she has written for, among others, the Daily Mail, the Daily Telegraph and Radio Times, as well as working at TVam and BBC Radio 4.

Thatcher is the author of several books, including a biography of her father and a 1983 election diary with her mother.

Although she largely kept a low profile while her mother was prime minister, Thatcher caused controversy in 1991 when it emerged she had failed to pay the poll tax.

In the past, she has been romantically linked with the former MP Jonathan Aitken, TV producer Mike Begg and Richard Evans, a biographer of tennis legend John McEnroe.

However, her agreement to take part in the reality TV show I'm a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! saw her gain a whole new public profile, after she went on to win the fifth series.