News anchor Krishnan Guru-Murthy caught calling lawmaker a ‘c–t’

One of the UK’s most respected news anchors has been forced to apologize after he was caught on a live feed calling a cabinet minister a “c–t.”

Krishnan Guru-Murthy, the head anchor of Channel 4 news, had no idea he was still on a livestream outside 10 Downing Street on Wednesday when he had a crude exchange with Member of Parliament Steve Baker after an interview.

“It wasn’t a stupid question, Steve, you know it,” he was recorded shouting out — then chuckling as he said, “What a c–t.”

Guru-Murthy later apologized after the clip started going viral online, with one post viewed more than 5 million times by Thursday morning.

The vulgar outburst didn’t appear on Channel 4’s broadcast but it was taken from a live feed of Downing Street.

“After a robust interview with Steve Baker MP I used a very offensive word in an unguarded moment off air,” the veteran broadcaster tweeted.

“While it was not broadcast that word in any context is beneath the standards I set myself and I apologize unreservedly. I have reached out to Steve Baker to say sorry.”

Baker, the Minister of State for Northern Ireland, initially told Times Radio that Channel 4 should fire its star anchor.

“It’s most unfortunate that he has sworn on air like that. If it’s in breach of his code of conduct, I do hope they sack him – it would be a service to the public,” the MP said.

However, he later appeared to accept Guru-Murthy’s apology.

“I appreciate you apologizing. Thank you,” he wrote in reply to the anchor’s tweet.

Most of the other comments, however, were from online wags suggesting that the anchor should not have apologized for the slur.

“Said what we were all thinking,” one person quipped, while another wrote: “Most accurate reporting we have had [on] this lot in ages.”