BBC under pressure to sack Andrew Neil after astonishing late night 'sexist' Twitter rant

The BBC is coming under significant pressure to part company with the presenter of their flagship political shows, Politics Live and This Week, Andrew Neil, after an astonishing late night Twitter rant which included an extraordinary 'sexist attack' aimed at Guardian journalist Carole Cadwalladr. In a now-deleted tweet, published at 03:15 in the morning, the BBC presenter labelled Cadwalladr a "mad cat woman":

Cadwalladr is an award-winning journalist who has been routinely attacked by high profile supporters of Brexit after her work exposing shady goings on within the Brexit campaign during the referendum. Neil, who is also the Chairman of the hard-right Spectator magazine - amongst many, many other paid roles - is a staunch supporter of Brexit. During his late night rant, Neil also labelled Primal Scream frontman Bobby Gillepsie a "miserable Jock", and accused him of spouting "Corbynista propaganda from his fancy Islington pad": https://twitter.com/afneil/status/1062181351498104833 Unsurprisingly, Neil's far from impartial rant came in for significant criticism: https://twitter.com/OwenJones84/status/1062282206066958336 https://twitter.com/OwenJones84/status/1062290399040073729 https://twitter.com/shahmiruk/status/1062343986927546368 https://twitter.com/Ian_Fraser/status/1062327004673007617 https://twitter.com/AyoCaesar/status/1062276316400152576 https://twitter.com/JolyonMaugham/status/1062262155137945600 https://twitter.com/WillBlackWriter/status/1062343617929453568 https://twitter.com/ThatTimWalker/status/1062343559964180482 Following the criticism, it appears Neil was forced to delete his tweet aimed at Cadwalladr, with the BBC Press Team issuing a response stating:

"There has been some discussion on here regarding a tweet from Andrew Neil about Carole Cadwalladr. He has deleted the tweet and recognises it was inappropriate."

https://twitter.com/BBCNewsPR/status/1062330089789120512 However, despite deleting the tweet after recognising it was "inappropriate", Neil is yet to apologise. The tweet was online for at least seven hours before being removed. https://twitter.com/OwenJones84/status/1062338040788647937 Responding to Neil's outburst on Twitter, Cadwalladr wrote:

"Four days ago, I wrote to @BBC re its role in amplifying @Arron_banks’ harassment campaign against me. I cited Neil’s tweets.

This isn’t just sexist & unfunny. & it doesn’t just reveal wider failure to report the story. It betrays the British public. Who are not being told the truth.”

https://twitter.com/carolecadwalla/status/1062326538635481090 She also went on to label the BBC's response as "so very inadequate": https://twitter.com/carolecadwalla/status/1062330925936189440 The BBC also came in for criticism for their apparent double standards in relation to Neil's latest outburst and the situation surrounding the departure of their former presenter James O'Brien, who was forced to resign from his role presenting Newsnight rather than tone down his left wing views. Earlier this year, O'Brien tweeted stating:

"As regular listeners know, I withdrew from the [Newsnight] roster some months ago to retain my right to criticise Brexit and Trump in my other work, notably @LBC.

The thing Brextremists really can’t compute is me being prepared to compromise my career for principles.

I hated stepping down from Newsnight and could have stayed with simple changes to my modus operandi outside the Beeb. The decision makes me look decent so they claim I was axed.”

However, it appears that the BBC are yet to issue the same ultimatum with Andrew Neil regarding his now routine, and unashamedly hard-right, political outbursts.