BBC bully Fiona Bruce did make “light-hearted” personal comments about Diane Abbott to warm up the audience, according to reports yesterday.

Private correspondence sent by Question Time editors to the shadow home secretary’s team is said to have confirmed that the show’s presenter made “what she believed were good-humoured remarks during the warm-up,” according to the Mirror.

Several audience members have complained that Ms Bruce made bullying remarks about Ms Abbott’s relationship with Jeremy Corbyn in the 1970s.

At first the BBC denied the comments were ever made at the controversial show in Derby.

It later conceded that Ms Abbot was treated unfairly over some of the polling figures discussed on the show.

Now the BBC appears to have made a further climb-down by admitting that its host mocked Britain’s first black female MP behind her back while she was waiting in the green room.

Ms Abbott’s team told the Morning Star that the Mirror’s report was “accurate,” however they were not releasing the correspondence as it formed part of an ongoing complaint.