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The BBC has apologised for broadcasting a three-year-old clip of Boris Johnson at the cenotaph on Breakfast this morning.

The old clip was used instead of footage from yesterday of the bungling Tory leader placing a poppy wreath upside down as the Queen watched.

The broadcaster said: "This morning on the programme we incorrectly used footage from a Remembrance Day service that was not filmed yesterday.

"This was a production mistake and we apologise for the error".

The PM was accused of being disrespectful for placing a wreath upside down.

But this error wasn't shown on the BBC this morning - with 2016 cenotaph footage being aired instead.

A handwritten message, pinned to the top of Mr Johnson's poppy wreath yesterday, read: "To the immortal memory of those who laid down their lives for us all."

Yet when he approached the war memorial on Whitehall, video coverage showed him turning the wreath over, apparently by accident, which meant his message ended up at the bottom of the wreath and upside down.

(Image: James Veysey/REX)

(Image: PA)

After the old footage was broadcast on the BBC this morning, many Twitter users accused the broadcaster of 'deliberate manipulation'.

One person wrote: "You spliced the footage using clips from two different years.

"Not something you can do by 'mistake'. It was Conservative propaganda, pure and simple."

Another also said it couldn't have been a mistake, adding: "It's a process.

(Image: REUTERS)

"The data is collected (and to search back that far you'd have to be deliberate) and is then signed off - it's not possible to be a mistake."

Meanwhile, separate footage emerged last night showing Mr Johnson committing another gaffe.

Stopping by a Specsavers opticians in Matlock, Derbyshire, on Friday, he offered to help mop up flood water that had spread across the shop floor.

But unfortunately, he just couldn't get it quite right as he appeared not to actually know what he was doing.

Footage shows Mr Johnson trying to operate the mop and bizarrely swirling the dirty water across the floor rather than actually removing it.