The Mash Report offered Carole Cadwalldr a chance to respond to Andrew Neil's criticisms and it was epic

For a few weeks now, BBC political presenter Andrew Neil has been engaged with a bizarre spat with Guardian and Observer journalist Carole Cadwalldr.

Cadwalldr is one of the lead journalists who helped expose the data exploitation from Cambridge Analytica during the 2016 presidential election.

She has also investigated the dealings of the Brexiteer and Leave.EU founder Arron Banks, who benefited from illegal funding during the 2016 referendum.

Cadwalldr's work on the latter case has seen her become the subject of misogynistic abuse from Banks, who has routinely called her a 'mad cat lady' during her investigation.

69-year-old Neil, who is the presenter of both This Week on BBC One and Politics Live on BBC Two, echoed Banks's words in a since-deleted tweeted that he posted on 13 November.

In reply to another tweet, bizarrely about Nicki Minaj, Neil wrote:

Nothing compared with having to dead with mad cat woman from the Simpsons, Karol Kodswallop.

After Neil deleted the tweet, the BBC News Press Team responded to Cadwalladr with a rather 'inadequate' apology.

This attempt to sweep the controversy under the rug failed and a group of senior female journalists at the BBC complained about the words and actions of Neil towards Cadwalldr.

However, despite receiving a letter from Cadwalldr complaining about Neil still being allowed to be on TV in the wake of his abuse towards her, the BBC did not offer her a chance to reply.

Within other tweets, Neil criticised the output of the BBC's news satire comedy show The Mash Report, labelling it as 'self-satisfied, self-adulatory, unchallenged left wing propaganda'.

One tweet also criticises The Mash for being a "pathetic imitation" of John Stewart.

Nish Kumar, who presents The Mash, then posted this humorous response to Neil's Twitter rant.

Spotting a chance to join forces and get one over on Neil, and also offer Cadwalldr a proper right of reply, The Mash offered her an opportunity to do just that - and the statement was perfect.

'Mad cat woman' is the 21 century version of calling a woman a witch.

Next time Andrew Neil seeks to undermine the credibility of my reporting in order to shield his Tory mates who have been caught breaking the law on a truly epic scale, can I suggest he simply cuts to the chase and burns me at the stake.

Cadwalldr thanked The Mash Report for allowing her to respond in such a manner.

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