Evans retracts Twitter “poverty” joke

BBC radio presenter Chris Evans has been forced to apologise for posting a joke which made light of African poverty on his Twitter page.

Evans retweeted the joke to his 84,000 followers – but later deleted the message and posted an apology which read, “Apologies for last re tweet didn't read it properly. Never meant to offend. Not funny at all.”

The offending “joke” read, “You give an African £2 a month and what do they do? Buy a bloody trumpet.”

Evans is one of the BBC’s highest paid radio presenters, having succeeded veteran broadcaster Terry Wogan on Radio 2’s flagship breakfast show earlier this year.