Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman suffered a disastrous slip of the tongue on last night’s show when he mispronounced the word cuts.
The 60-year-old broadcasting legend, famous for his aggressive interviewing, was presenting the serious news programme on BBC2 for the first time in two months.
Discussing the economy, Paxman said: “Supposing, though, some of the people who ought to be paying taxes so the c***s, cuts aren’t so bad aren’t actually doing so.”
A spokesperson for Newsnight later apologised for the “unfortunate slip of the tongue”.
The show’s anchor, that’s anchor, is the third prominent BBC star to say the swearword live on air in two months.
In December, Today journalist James Naughtie committed the faux pas when describing culture secretary Jeremy Hunt while Andrew Marr made the same mistake later that day.