The presenter, 59, was attempting to choose someone to contribute to Thursday's debate, when she said: "The guy there in the middle, the black guy in the middle. Yes, you sir."

The comment has been removed from the BBC iPlayer version of the episode.

The BBC also apologised for her choice of words.

In a statement, Bruce apologised and said she was "wrong to identify him [the man] as I did".

"I totally understand why my words last night caused offence, and I apologise," she said in the statement, released through the BBC.

She said she had since spoken to the audience member directly.

"[I] explained that usually I can see and describe an item of clothing or otherwise to help sound engineers with a microphone find people in the audience.

"Last night that was not the case as my view was obscured.

"In the split second I had, the easiest thing to do would have been to ignore the audience member and move on, but I felt strongly that his voice should be heard."

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A BBC spokesperson said: "The intent was to ensure his voice was heard, however we recognise we should not have identified him in this way and apologise for any offence caused.

"As such the recorded version on iPlayer has been edited to remove this."

Bruce has hosted Question Time since 2019.

The newsreader, who has been with the BBC since 1989, took over the role from long-serving presenter and journalist David Dimbleby.

Earlier this year, Bruce was also accused by some of trivialising domestic violence during a debate on the show.

She said she was "required to legally contextualise" a statement about Boris Johnson's father Stanley and that her comments were not reflective of her own opinions.

Nevertheless, she later announced she was stepping down as ambassador for domestic violence charity Refuge .