Awaiting A Western Renaissance: Carol Thatcher unrepentant over tennis player 'golliwog' remark

Ms Thatcher was appearing on the Andrew Marr Show on BBC One when she was asked about the incident by the programme's host.

She said she regretted the leaking of the incident to the press but not the use of the word, adding: "It was in a context which wasn't really appreciated at the time."

She went on: "The point I had [to make] was about today's obsession with political correctness and I think that still remains a topic that has to be really addressed and some common sense injected into it."

But former Labour leader Neil Kinnock, who was also appearing on the BBC show, challenged Ms Thatcher over the incident.

He said: "The one thing that really struck me when I heard the report that you'd used the word and stuck by the word was astonishment because I didn't think that somebody like you Carol would consciously or unconsciously use such a word.

"Not because of this overworked term political correctness but merely out of courtesy - common humanity."

He added: "I really was surprised by it," to which Ms Thatcher replied "Sorry to shock you Lord Kinnock."

Ms Thatcher was sacked from her position as a roving reporter on BBC One's The One Show earlier this year after she referred to the French-Congolese tennis player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga as a "golliwog" during a backstage discussion about the Australian Open. continues here