Jeremy Paxman in on-air c**t slip

Jeremy Paxman last night became the latest BBC presenter to utter the word c**t live on air, after the Newsnight anchor got in a tangle in a piece about cuts.

Presenting an item on campaign group UK Uncut, Paxman added another letter to the word 'cuts', before suppressing a look of astonishment and continuing with the piece.

"Supposing, though, some of the people who ought to be paying taxes so the c**ts, cuts aren't so bad aren't actually doing so," he said.

The mistake follows a similar gaffe in December by James Naughtie, who switched culture secretary Jeremy Hunt's surname for the word c**t live on BBC Radio 4's Today programme. The error was repeated less than an hour later by fellow presenter Andrew Marr.

Last month, Olly Foster, host of the BBC's Sportsday programme, also accidentally swapped the beginning of former Manchester United footballer Eric Cantona's surname for 'c**t' live on air.

Discussing Paxman's slip, a BBC spokesman said: "This was an unfortunate slip of the tongue and we apologise for any offence caused."