This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Senior female BBC journalists have complained to executives at the corporation about the presenter Andrew Neil, after he failed to apologise for calling an Observer journalist a “mad cat woman”.

Neil, the host of the late night show This Week and one of the corporation’s most high-profile political interviewers, made the comment about Carole Cadwalladr – whose work helped expose the Cambridge Analytica scandal – as part of a string of tweets posted in the early hours of Tuesday.

The language echoed that used by Leave.EU’s founder, Arron Banks, who has regularly branded Cadwalladr a “mad cat lady” during her investigation into his Brexit activities and business empire – comments widely criticised as misogynistic.

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Neil later deleted the tweets and retweeted a statement from the BBC press office saying he “recognises it was inappropriate” to send the message.

But the BBC journalists, who declined to be identified because of potential repercussions, said this was not enough and confirmed complaints had been made to executives about the “sexist” comment on Neil’s combative Twitter account.

They also highlighted the “bizarre” juxtaposition of Neil’s criticism of Cadwalladr – whom he dubbed “Karol Kodswallop” and likened to a character from The Simpsons, Eleanor Abernathy – with comments made the following day by the BBC director general, Tony Hall, who said he was appalled by the abuse journalists receive on Twitter.

Two senior BBC women also expressed exasperation that the corporation took some female presenters off air earlier this year for impartiality reasons after they tweeted support for equal pay at the corporation, but BBC bosses did not punish Neil for a tweet criticising an individual at the heart of a major political story.

Another BBC journalist complained that “when producers tweet something stupid they are left to swing in the wind” but Neil was given greater freedom due to his status in the corporation.

The BBC would not comment on speculation that Neil had refused to formally apologise over the comments. A spokesperson said: “Andrew acknowledges that the tweet was inappropriate, and it was removed shortly after it was posted. The tweet was sent from Andrew’s personal account, however the BBC has social media guidelines which it expects all staff to follow and these have been discussed with Andrew.”

The tweets were sent at around 3.15am UK time, but Neil has said he was in the United Arab Emirates to present an awards ceremony. He is the longstanding chair of the Dubai-based publishing company ITP Media Group.

Neil, a former Sunday Times editor, often uses his Twitter account to promote pieces published by the rightwing magazine the Spectator. He is chair of its parent company, Press Holdings, which is owned by the billionaire Barclay Brothers.

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The BBC has previously insisted that, regardless of his personal views, Neil abides by strict impartiality rules and treats politicians of all parties equally while on air.

In his tweets Neil also criticised the BBC’s political satire show The Mash Report as “self satisfied, self adulatory, unchallenged leftwing propaganda”.

“When it comes to so-called comedy the BBC has long given up on balance, on radio and TV. Nobody seems to care. And I don’t want rightwing comedy, whatever that is. I’d just like comedy. Which is in really short supply. On TV and radio.”

He also said the Primal Scream singer Bobby Gillespie, who recently looked on stony-faced as Neil danced on the set of This Week, was a “miserable jock” who likes to “spout Corbynista propaganda from his fancy Islington pad”.

Neil has cut back on his TV commitments since marrying Susan Nilsson in a 2015 ceremony in the south of France. In addition to This Week he presents Wednesday’s prime minister’s questions edition of Politics Live.