The latest edition of Have I Got News For You was pulled from the schedules by the BBC before broadcast on Friday night.

The episode had been filmed by the makers, Hat Trick Productions, on Thursday evening, with jo Brand hosting, but then a decision was taken that the programme could not go out in the run-up to the European Elections because one of the panellists was Change UK acting leader MP Heidi Allen. 

According to reports the BBC said it was "inappropriate to feature political party leaders" during an election period as it did not allow for "equal representation" of political views.

The HIGNFY Twitter feed confirmed the news shortly before broadcast, tweeting: "Sorry everyone. The BBC have pulled tonight's edition of #HIGNFY - no, we didn't book Danny Baker. We booked Heidi Allen, a member of a party no-one knows the name of (not even the people in it), because the Euro elections, which nobody wants, may or may not be happening. Sorry."

Comedian and guest Phil Wang, however, jokily tweeted another reason why the show may have been pulled: "The truth is tonight’s Have I Got News For You was axed because at one point Boris Johnson broke into the studio, ran up to me, gave me *the most painful Chinese burn of my life*, while guffawing “your lot like this don’t you. You named it after all. Stop crying”. Horrible !"

An old edition of Would I Lie To You? replaced it in the schedules at 9pm.