The BBC has become embroiled in a 'no platform' row after producers axed a feminist guest when a transgender activist refused to appear on a show with her.

Nicola Williams, from Fair Play Women, was invited on Stephen Nolan’s show to discuss controversial comments made by tennis star Martina Navratilova.

But the feminist campaigner says her invitation was swiftly withdrawn after her organisation was branded like the 'Ku Klux Klan', according to The Times.

Rachel McKinnon, a transgender world cycling champion and activist, refused to appear on the show alongside her and said her organisation led a 'smear campaign against me and other trans women athletes'.

Nicola Williams (pictured), says her invitation was swiftly withdrawn after her views were compared to the 'Ku Klux Klan'

In a series of tweets before the show, Dr MacKinnon wrote: 'I will not participate in a discussion panel that takes them seriously and gives them a platform.

'Would you expect a black person to actively 'debate' a KKK member on civil rights? That's analogous to what you're asking me.

'If that's what BBC thinks is the 'other side' to this 'debate,' then there's no debate.

She added: 'Asking me to debate transphobic organizations like Fair Play For Women is like asking an astronaut to 'debate' flat-earthers.'

Fair Play for Women, a feminist campaign group, oppose the 'rush to reform transgender laws' and women being called 'transphobic for simply asking questions'.

Dr Williams claims she was was soon contacted by a BBC producer who told her the invitation had been withdrawn but was offered a right to reply later in the show.

Rachel McKinnon (pictured in an image from Twitter), a transgender world cycling champion and activist, refused to appeared to appear on the show alongside her

The BBC's editorial guidelines say that guests do not have the right to stop other panelists from appearing on shows or in discussions.

The BBC said Dr Williams' invitation had not been withdrawn and that she had instead been asked to appear later on the show, according to The Times.

A BBC spokeswoman told the newspaper: 'We invited Dr Williams to appear on the programme and after initially agreeing to join us at a later point in the show she subsequently declined. The offer remains open.'

Navratilova has claimed transgender women in sport are 'cheating' unless they have irreversible surgery to change their anatomy.

The nine-times Wimbledon champion, 62, says she is happy to address transgender athletes by whichever pronoun they desire, but would not be happy to compete against them unless they have fully transitioned.

Navratilova also had a furious Twitter row with transgender female cycling champion Rachel McKinnon at the end of last year.

Writing in the Sunday Times this weekend, she said: 'To put my argument at its most basic: a man can decide to be female, take hormones if required by whatever sporting organisation, win everything in sight and perhaps earn a small fortune, and then reverse his decision and go back to making babies. It's insane and it's cheating.'

She makes a 'critical distinction' between transgender women like McKinnon who take hormones and former tennis player Renee Richards who was born Richard Raskind and had gender reassignment surgery.

Navratilova says she supports Caster Semenya, the intersex South African runner born a woman but with naturally high testosterone levels.

The pair were invited on Stephen Nolan’s show to discuss tennis star Martina Navratilova who said transgender athletes should not compete against women

Czech-born Navratilova has campaigned widely for LGBT rights after coming out as a lesbian in 1981 and being faced with mass homophobic abuse.

But in an opinion piece for the Sunday Times she hit out at the 'tyranny' of trans activists who she claims denounces anyone who argues against them.

The tennis coach says even if transgender women have hormone therapy, they still have stronger muscles and bones and have higher levels of oxygen-carrying red blood cells from childhood.

Her first attack on 'trans tyranny' came in December 2018 when she wrote on Twitter: 'You can't proclaim yourself a female and be able to compete against women.'

She was called out by McKinnon, a Canadian academic, who is the first transgender woman to win a female world cycling title.

McKinnon, 35, still has her male anatomy, but has lived as a woman since she was 29.

She accused Navratilova of transphobia and demanded an apology.

The cyclist wrote afterwards: 'I still can't believe she said this...to me of all people.'