THE ABC has apologised to the Prime Minister for publishing an offensive twitter handle during last night’s Q&A program.

During the live broadcast, a relatively innocent tweet, published by someone using the Twitter handle @AbbottLovesAnal was broadcast.

An ABC spokesman told news.com.au that ABC Managing Director Mark Scott texted Tony Abbott this morning to apologise for the offensive Twitter handle, “and a formal letter of apology will be sent to the Prime Minister today.”

The spokesman added the ABC “regrets any offence this may have caused.”

He said “this particular tweet was not published on purpose,” explaining that Q&A handles a high volume of tweets during its live broadcast. He added “the offending tweet will not be included on any rebroadcast of the program.”

The development comes as the man behind the Twitter account denied any association with former terror suspect Zaky Mallah, after Mr Mallah claimed he was a “friend” last night.

It’s the second time in recent months the program has been in the spotlight. In June, Mallah caused a stir when he told a shocked Q&A panel that Australian Muslims were “justified” in joining Islamic State.

While the content of last night’s tweet was innocent enough: “I prefer ones twitter feed to their biographies” (sic), the handle was clearly not.

Fiona Scott, Federal Member for Lindsay, NSW, screengrabbed the moment and wrote on Twitter accompanying the picture: “What a disgraceful Twitter handle for Q&A to broadcast”.

@jamesmassola @QandA I'm sure @annabelcrabb will not appreciate what appeared on the screen with her. — Fiona Scott (@FionaScottMP) August 24, 2015

As you can imagine, I'm pretty disappointed about the inadvertent misspelling of the #AbbottLovesAnnabel hashtag on @QandA — Annabel Crabb (@annabelcrabb) August 24, 2015

The account holder told news.com.au the tweet was a “bit of harmless banter. All in the name of #qanda, Tony Jones, democracy, etc,” before tweeting “let’s get it trending”.

Later, Mallah tweeted in support of his “friend”.

Mallah did not respond when contacted by news.com.au.

The 'Abbott Loves Anal' account is a friend of mine. I never thought he will make it after my fiasco loll. Great work mate. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 — Zaky Mallah (@ZakyMallah) August 24, 2015

I'd just like to say I have no affiliation with the fool Zakky Mallah. He wishes he knew me. #qanda #analgate — Gregg Schurch (@AbbottLovesAnal) August 24, 2015

Earlier, former Independent MP Tony Windsor said he thought Tony Abbott was “still lost” and lacked real direction to run the country.

The former member for New England, who was one of several MPs who supported the Gillard minority Labor government from 2010 to 2013, made his remarks on last night’s episode of Q&A.

He told the audience that while he felt sorry for Mr Abbott when he was in Opposition and trying to land the top job, he feels that he still fails to understand how to be prime minister.

“Well I think he is still quite lost,” Mr Windsor said in response to the question from the audience about his opinion of the Prime Minister. “I don’t think I feel sorry for him now, I felt sorry for him then, because I thought he was struggling coming to grips with competing with someone else for the prime minister’s job and I think it became quite obvious particularly when he was begging for the job that he wasn’t up to it.

“One of the comments that I get in the street more than anything else is ‘we know why you didn’t give it now’ and I think that is a reflection on the capacity of Tony Abbott to actually be the prime minister. And I think he is still struggling with it. He was struggling at that time of how to become the prime minister in that environment and I did feel sorry for him because as someone you have seen in the past as a strong rugged individual to see them in a different circumstance, I think that it is a human thing to feel for him.

“I don’t think and didn’t then comprehend what he actually wanted to do in terms of leading the nation ... I remember him saying ‘I will do anything to get this job’. So, it was about getting the job. And I’m sure I think we are seeing it being played out now with the possibility of war in Syria. To me, that’s more about keeping the job than actually putting up an argument to take this country to another war. So I think he’s still in that vein of trying to work out what he is actually doing. And if you examine some of the policy mixes, there are so many contradictions that have come out that people are having difficulty in trying to work out ... the direction of the nation.”

His comments sparked a rebuke from former Howard cabinet minister Peter Reith who said Windsor was being unfair.

“Look, there are a lot of things you can say about Tony (Abbott), and I have written quite a lot of things I don’t agree with about (him), but I wouldn’t say he was lost. And I certainly don’t agree with Tony (Windsor), who used as an example our policy in respect of Iraq and Syria. To say that it’s Tony (Abbott) wanting to go into another war, to say that, I really don’t understand why you would say that?

“In fact he explained that in the last few days — as did Julie Bishop — that territory in the eastern part of Syria is territory that is not governed by anybody and they are looking at the legalities of the RAAF being more involved in to that eastern part of Syria so I think that was a very unfair attack on Tony.”

However, the pair both agreed that the Prime Minister was struggling with formulating a direction for the next election, as well as the Labor Party.

“Are there issues, difficult issues facing Tony? Of course there are,” Mr Reith said. “I think he is entitled to credit for some of the things he took to the last election.

“I would agree with Tony (Windsor) with regard to what is the narrative, what is the big plan for the next election because I think there are very big reform issues facing Australia, but it’s not just facing Tony — the Labor Party are struggling, if not even more so.”

Mr Windsor replied that he agreed that both parties lack a clear narrative.

The program, which was held at the Melbourne Writers Festival and was hosted by Virginia Trioli, also featured discussion on the use of social media by politicians, sexism and whether women should still enter politics given the treatment Julia Gillard endured while she was Prime Minister.

Former Queensland Premier Anna Bligh responded with an overwhelming yes, telling the audience that she thought politics needed the “best and brightest” Australia had to offer.

“It’s absolutely critical to the health of our democracy,” she added.

Mr Windsor told the audience that he thought women actually made better politicians and described Julia Gillard as an “extraordinary individual”.

“I have never seen an individual man, woman or animal that was subjected to the issues that she was particularly in relation to her gender and body shape,” he said. “It was very deliberate as a way of destabilising the government and I understand the nature of a hung parliament, I have been in a couple. The game is to weaken the numbers so that you can change the government. “But she went through some extraordinary abuses. I think I saw her cry once. I think she was probably one of the strongest individuals that I have ever met.

“And I think she deserves great credit not only for being the first woman Prime Minister but for being the first woman Prime Minister in the circumstances as it was with the brilliance of Abbott in opposition and the constant niggling of her own people as well. To be able to deal with that circumstance with a hung parliament in both houses, she did it well.”