Police are reviewing an allegation made about the tweet that resulted in DJ Danny Baker losing his job.
The broadcaster was sacked from BBC Radio 5 Live for tweeting a joke about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s son featuring a picture of a chimpanzee.
The tweet was posted on Wednesday, May 8, the same day Harry and Meghan posed with their new arrival, Archie Mountbatten-Windsor.
Scotland Yard said the force had received an allegation in relation to a tweet posted on May 8.
Good morning, everyone.Following one of the worst days of my life I just want to formally apologise for the outrage I caused and explain how I got myself into this mess.I chose the wrong photo to illustrate a joke. Disastrously so.
— Danny Baker (@prodnose) May 10, 2019
“An allegation has been received by the Metropolitan Police Service on Thursday May 9 in relation to a tweet published on May 8.
“As is routine, the allegation will be reviewed and assessed by specialist officers,” the Met said.
On Friday, Baker said he wanted to “formally apologise for the outrage I caused” following “one of the worst days of my life”.
In attempting to lampoon privilege & the news cycle I went to a file of goofy pictures & saw the chimp dressed as a Lord and thought, "That's the one!" Had I kept searching I might have chosen General Tom Thumb or even a a baby in a crown. But I didn't. God knows I wish had.
— Danny Baker (@prodnose) May 10, 2019
He said: “I chose the wrong photo to illustrate a joke. Disastrously so.
“In attempting to lampoon privilege and the news cycle I went to a file of goofy pictures and saw the chimp dressed as a Lord and thought, ‘That’s the one!’
“Had I kept searching I might have chosen General Tom Thumb or even a baby in a crown. But I didn’t. God knows I wish had.
“Minutes later I was alerted by followers that this royal baby was of course mixed race and waves of panic and revulsion washed over me.
“F***, what had I done? I needed no lessons on the centuries slurs equating simians and people of colour. Racism at it’s basest.”
On Thursday, Baker, 61, insisted he was no “downbeat racist wretch” after he was sacked for what his bosses said was a “serious error of judgment”.
He blasted his bosses for their handling of the situation and said he was trying to make a point about class.
The DJ, who has been sacked from the station before, had tweeted a black and white image showing a well-dressed man and woman holding hands with a suited chimpanzee, which he captioned: “Royal baby leaves hospital.”
Following a backlash and accusations of racism, he deleted the post and apologised.
But, speaking to journalists outside his London home, he said it was “weaselly for the BBC to chuck us under the bus”.
He revealed that he ended his “lecture” from his bosses “with two very old fashioned Anglo-Saxon words”.
Baker alerted fans to his sacking when he tweeted “just got fired from BBC 5 Live”, before the BBC had made a statement.
BBC Radio 5 Live previously dropped Baker’s soccer phone-in show in 1997 when the broadcaster’s news chief Tony Hall, now the corporation’s director general, said he had crossed “the line between being humorous and controversial and being insulting”.
His BBC London 94.9 show was axed in 2012, days before he was due to be inducted into the Radio Academy Hall of Fame.
The DJ has been unafraid to publicly criticise his BBC bosses, calling them “pinheaded weasels”.
Baker, who hosted a weekly show on 5 Live, made his name as a journalist on the punk fanzine Sniffin’ Glue before going on to work at NME and launching a career in TV and radio.
He denied bullying campmates in 2016 when he was the first in the series to get the boot from I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here!