The Commission for Racial Equality commended Channel 4 yesterday for the swift removal of a Big Brother contestant who used a racially offensive term.

Emily Parr, 19, from Bristol, called Charley Uchea, a fellow housemate, a “nigger” during a misguided attempt to adopt urban “street” language.

Producers, under scrutiny after Ofcom’s damning verdict over the Celebrity Big Brother racism row, removed Ms Parr within hours of the word being uttered, and said that such behaviour would not be tolerated. Tonight’s eviction vote, for which Parr had been nominated, has been suspended.

Ms Parr, a middle-class drama student, was heard to say: “Are you pushing it out, you nigger?” to Ms Uchea while they were dancing in the living room. Ms Uchea and other housemates expressed shock. Ms Parr said that she had not intended to be offensive and said the term was exchanged widely during discussions with her black friends.

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Channel 4 bosses were alerted to the exchange, which was removed from the E4 channel “as-live” feed. Criticised for failing to act against the alleged bullying of Shilpa Shetty during Celebrity Big Brother, this time the response was swift.

Ms Parr was called to the diary room at 3.30am yesterday and told that she being was removed from the house immediately without further contact with other contestants. The channel is offering refunds to viewers who had voted to evict Ms Parr. A show spokeswoman said that it had closed the phone lines as soon as it could.

Angela Jain, the Big Brother commissioning editor, said: “We must consider the potential offence to viewers regardless of Emily’s intentions and her housemates’ response. The word is clearly racially offensive and there was no justification for its use. We have removed Emily to make it clear that such behaviour won’t be tolerated.”

A spokesman for the Commission for Racial Equality said: “While racism is in the ear of the beholder, this word is clearly offensive. We’re relieved that Channel 4 acted quickly.”

The housemates have signed up to rules that make clear they will be removed if their behaviour causes serious offence to viewers or contestants. Channel 4 believed that it was appropriate to screen the incident in last night’s edited highlights show. The word was “bleeped” after its first full utterance.

Ms Parr, who describes herself as right-wing, said that another housemate had previously used the offending word. Channel 4 said it had found no evidence of that.

Hertfordshire police, which has a unit to monitor the show, filmed in Elstree, received no complaints. Tony Blair’s spokesman said: “We deplore anything that could be perceived as racist.” The Tories praised Channel 4 for its quick action.

What she said

Emily: (referring to Charley’s hips) You pushing it out, you n*****?

Nicky: (shocked laughter) I can’t believe you said that.

Charley: You are in trouble.

Emily: I was joking.

Charley: I know you were . . . but that’s some serious s**t.

Emily: Why?

Charley: Maybe you see it in a rap. Maybe you and your friends sit there saying it.

Emily: I’m friendly with plenty of black people.

Nicky: You call them n*****s?

Emily: Yeah, and they call me n*****s. They call me wiggers as well.

Nicky: I’m quite shocked.

Emily: It’s not a big deal though, is it?

Charley: Not for us it ain’t.

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