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A BBC comedian pranked Lord David Blunkett , taking advantage of his blindness to fool him into thinking he was a Labour party insider.

Heydon Prowse, who fronts the BBC programme The Revolution Will Be Televised played the trick on the former Home Secretary, who has been blind since birth.

The BBC today refused to condemn the stunt and refused to answer whether or not Prowse was working for them at the time.

Prowse sidled up to the Labour grandee, walking with an aide and his guide dog, after he had given an interview to a broadcaster near the Houses of Parliament on the crisis in the Labour leadership.

Prowse approached Lord Blunkett pretending to be a party insider.

The funnyman made a number of inflammatory comments to the peer, trying to trick him into saying something unguarded.

He suggested Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn should be thrown under a "small taxi", and said he'd "had a word with Mandy [New Labour architect Peter Mandelson]. We're trying to get the old crew back together again."

As Lord Blunkett, 69, was led away by an aide, Prowse said: "Listen, I left that document on your desk. Mandy's going to be in touch, OK?"

The moment was caught on camera by a separate TV crew, not linked to the production, who were waiting to interview Lord Blunkett.

Lord Blunkett told the Mirror: "I think the cheap laugh is actually on Mr Prowse.

"I said nothing that I have not said to anyone chatting to me and would never use not being able to see as a 'defence' in any circumstances.

"To do so would be to allow this very silly individual and those at the BBC working with him to achieve their pathetic little moment in the sun."

The prank was performed in the temporary media village on College Green, across the road from the Houses of Parliament, an area not open to the public.

Lord Blunkett had been giving an interview with BBC News.

The Revolution Will Be Televised, the BBC Three satirical comedy show co-fronted by Prowse and comedian and activist Jolyon Rubenstein, ran for three series and one TV special.

The pair's antics have included presenting a GCSE maths book to George Osborne and secretly filming Sir Alan Duncan complaining MPs were being forced to live on "rations".

The clip of Sir Alan resulted in his dismissal as a Government minister.

Mr Prowse refused to speak to the Mirror about the incident. The Mirror also contacted his representatives, who had not responded at the time of publication.

The Mirror was told on five separate occasions that a spokesperson for BBC Comedy would return our calls.

Almost 24 hours later, they had not returned our calls.

A spokesperson for the BBC told the Mirror "We're not commenting on that."

A spokesperson for Hat Trick Productions also refused to comment, but did confirm Mr Prowse was making a programme for them.