Smokers’ lobby group Forest has won an apology from BBC Radio Northampton after a presenter compared smokers to alcoholics.

Bob Walmsley, host of the station’s consumer affairs programme, was discussing Redbridge Council’s decision to ban smokers from fostering – the same topic that saw Sun columnist Jon Gaunt sacked from Talksport yesterday for calling a councillor a Nazi.

The apology was made by Walmsley 48 hours after an interview last week with Forest spokesman Neil Rafferty.