EMILY Maitlis is set to return to our screens tonight on BBC's Newsnight for the first time since she delivered a highly critical monologue of the Prime Minister's chief aide.

The presenter started last week's show by stating as fact that Dominic Cummings had "broken lockdown rules". She also blasted Boris Johnson's "blind loyalty".

The BBC apologised the following day, saying her introduction did not meet impartiality standards.

It added: "Staff have been reminded of the guidelines."

Editor Katie Razzall replaced her on Wednesday night's programme, with Maitlis saying she had asked for the night off.

The Beeb received 40,000 complaints in the two days after Maitlis tore into Cummings and the PM at the start of Tuesday's show.

In her introduction to the BBC2 current affairs programme she said: "Dominic Cummings broke the rules, the country can see that and it's shocked the government cannot."

She added that Cummings "was the man, remember, who always got the public mood, he tagged the lazy label of 'elite' on those who disagreed".

The presenter was publicly reprimanded by bosses the next day for "overstepping the mark".

In a statement the corporation said: "Newsnight risked giving the perception that the BBC was taking sides — or that the introduction constituted the presenter’s opinions, rather than a summary of the journalism which would follow."

The presenter, 49, whose interview with Prince Andrew won interview and scoop of the year, is set to anchor tonight's Newsnight at 10.45pm.

Mark Damazer, a former Newsnight editor, said the BBC had to rein in its stars.

He wrote in the New Statesman: "The impartiality guide applies to Twitter just as it does to what they're broadcasting on the Today programme or Newsnight.

"I've come across stuff I don't think they should be writing. These are news and current affairs people."

Sir John Tusa, a founding presenter of Newsnight, added: "No editor of Newsnight that I worked with would have allowed that to go through. No presenter would have written anything like that.

"It is self-indulgence and it does no service to viewers. You can either choose to be a celebrity or you can choose to be a journalist. You can't be both."

Richard Sambrook, a former BBC director of global news, has been hired to review staff social media use but the corporation insisted this occurred before the Maitlis furore.

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