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The BBC has admitted it made a "mistake" after it edited out a clip of Boris Johnson being laughed at on Question Time.

On Friday, the party leaders faced questions from the public ahead of next month's election, during which Mr Johnson was laughed at when he was asked whether he thought the truth matters.

In a newsreel which later aired of the two-hour Question Time special, the audience's derisive reaction was edited out.

The editorial decision prompted a backlash online and Ofcom received 46 complaints about the edited clip.

The BBC has now admitted it made a "mistake", saying the edited clip "did not reflect the full reaction to Boris Johnson's answer" and that there was "absolutely no intention to mislead".

A statement said: "This clip from the BBC’s Question Time special, which was played in full on the News at Ten on Friday evening and on other outlets, was shortened for timing reasons on Saturday’s lunchtime bulletin, to edit out a repetitious phrase from Boris Johnson.

"However, in doing so we also edited out laughter from the audience. Although there was absolutely no intention to mislead, we accept this was a mistake on our part, as it didn’t reflect the full reaction to Boris Johnson’s answer.

"We did not alter the soundtrack or image in any way apart from this edit, contrary to some claims on social media.”

An unedited version of the clip shows the audience member asking the Prime Minister: "How important is it for someone in your position of power to always tell the truth?"

The question prompted both laughter and applause from the crowd in Sheffield.

During the Question Time special, hosted by Fiona Bruce, Mr Johnson also defended his right to "speak out" over articles he wrote as a journalist which compared veiled Muslim women to "letterboxes" and referred to "watermelon smiles", "flag-waving piccaninnies" and "tank-topped bum boys".

An audience member asked him: "Racist rhetoric is completely rife in this country, will you admit that you have personally contributed to this, and say the words, I'm sorry."

Mr Johnson replied: “I have written many millions of words in my life as a journalist and I have… genuinely never intended to cause hurt or pain to anybody and that is my intention.

“What I will say because I think you are referring to a particular article of a year or so ago.”

Ms Bruce stepped in to say: “To be fair, there’s a few articles. So there’s the Muslims going around looking like letterboxes, which was last year, you referred to tribal warriors with watermelon smiles and flag-waving pickaninnies and then just to get another demographic in, tank-topped bum boys.”

The Prime Minister replied: “If you go through all my articles with a fine-tooth comb and take out individual phrases there is no doubt that you can find things that can be made to seem offensive and of course I understand that.”