Clive Myrie was pulled from BBC News at Ten at the last minute after making jokes about Boris Johnson on Have I Got News For You.
The newsreader hosted this week’s HIGNFY after the former prime minister was found to have committed “repeated contempts” of Parliament over lockdown-busting parties.
He resigned before he was ordered to serve a 90 day suspension from the House of commons, but still managed to get in a resignation honours list.
In it was Charlotte Owen, a former intern who became a Baroness in under six years working in government.
Discussing the matter on the show, Myrie questioned why Boris might have wanted to ‘give her one’.
It was later revealed that the tight scheduling between Have I Got News For You and the Ten O’Clock News meant that Myrie couldn’t present the news.
But he said being pulled from the show was ‘nothing to do with the jokes’ about Boris Johnson.
“It was nothing to do with the jokes, they’d have just pulled the programme if it was the jokes, it was because the two programmes were too close together.”
Gushing over his role on Have I Got News For You, the TV star said: “I love it, it’s a great, great team behind the programme and Ian and Paul are wonderful, wonderful guys to be around and it’s just fun.
“To be out of that sort of straitjacket of news for a while is brilliant.”
Speaking to The Mirror, a BBC spokesperson said that Clive will be back to present the show tomorrow night.
It comes after a BBC executive said of the situation: “It didn’t feel right for Clive to go almost straight to the news when he’d just been making jokes.
“It was a tonal thing rather than due to anyone being overly anxious.”
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