Sky News host back at work after embarrassing on-air immigrant 'extermination' gaffe

Yesterday she did not realise her microphone was still on when she joked during a David Cameron speech that Conservatives favoured a policy of "extermination" on immigration.

Embarrassed bosses at Sky News, which 37-year-old Miss Etchingham leaves in a matter of weeks to join ITV, apologised over the incident yesterday, describing it as "regrettable".

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Conservative insiders were particularly annoyed as it was Mr Cameron's first major speech on immigration, feeling it had turned him into a laughing stock.

Viewers saw Mr Cameron saying: "Let me outline the action that a Conservative government would take.

"As we have seen, some of the increase in population size results from natural change - birth rates, death rates. Here our policy should be obvious . . ."

At which point Miss Etchingham's voice was clearly heard to say: "Extermination."

Sky News insiders claim a studio worker forgot to turn her microphone off during the speech, leaving viewers to pick up the remark.

A senior source at the broadcaster said: "It is one of those things - it was an open microphone incident. She was just being silly. It did not have any great import. As far as I can tell the Tories have accepted our apology.

"When you are presenting in the studio your mike is normally cut when you are not on - because that is the time you talk to your producer. She would have perfectly fairly expected the microphone to be down."

Another colleague was more critical, however. He said: "You work on the basis that any microphone or any camera might be live even if you think it is not."

The Conservative MP for Romford, Andrew Rosindell, was angry over the comment.

He said: "It is a very irresponsible and stupid thing to say bearing in mind it is coming from a serious journalist. Journalists should behave better and not make absurd remarks like that."

Miss Etchingham's gaffe comes after last week's revelations that she was leaving Sky News to co-present ITV's resurrected News At Ten bulletin alongside Sir Trevor McDonald.

News At Ten will return next year after the broadcaster convinced Sir Trevor to come back after he retired from ITN in 2005. Last night he said he was unaware of the Etchingham row.

A Sky News spokesman said: "A comment was made in the studio during David Cameron's speech that was broadcast in error. The comment was not intended for broadcast. The offthecuff remark was regrettable."

Miss Etchingham originally entered broadcasting as a BBC trainee from her studies at Cambridge.

She joined Sky News in 2002 from the BBC, where she spent ten years on shows including BBC Breakfast News and News 24.

She currently presents Sky News Today between 9am and 1pm each weekday and had been tipped as a rising star for some time before ITV poached her.

The mother of two, who lives in West London, has anchored some of the biggest news events for the channel, including the Beslan school siege and the Asian Tsunami.

She became the first woman to anchor a general election night programme in 2005.

She was also a launch presenter on Five News.

Her mishap is the latest in a string of newsreading gaffes in recent years.

Earlier this year Anglia TV news presenter Emma Baker was left red-faced after she did not realise she was on air and was seen fiddling with her bra and gossiping with colleagues.

Last year CNN was forced to apologise after anchor Kyra Phillips left her microphone on during a lavatory break and was heard talking about her "control freak" sister-in-law over the top of a George Bush speech on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.