BBC director-general Tony Hall suggested yesterday that the Morning Star might on rare occasions be featured in TV and radio newspaper reviews.

But he conjured up a new excuse for not mentioning the people’s paper regularly, by pointing out that the Morning Star’s circulation figures are not audited by the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

Mr Hall failed to explain why the Morning Star used to appear — intermittently — on the BBC decades ago, even though its circulation was never ABC-audited.

His justification for the BBC blackout was contained in a letter to Labour MP Jim Sheridan, who is demanding that the paper must be shown regularly.

Said Mr Hall: “I asked the team in BBC News to look into this and they have explained that the newspapers we feature regularly on our programmes are national newspapers that are widely available on the High Street — their circulation figures are audited by the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

“That’s why we don’t routinely include the Morning Star.

“Of course, if there’s a good editorial reason we may include other newspapers as well.

“We also provide a link to the Morning Star’s website on our website.”

Mr Sheridan raised the Star blackout with Mr Hall at a session of the Commons culture and media committee last autumn.

The Paisley MP followed up this year with a letter to Mr Hall.

Papers with widely differing circulations are featured by the BBC, ranging from the Sun with a two million circulation to the Guardian with 193,228, and the Independent with around 60,000.

However the spurned Morning Star presents a unique left-wing daily perspective and nine national trade unions are represented on its management committee.