[Cherie]

Originally Posted by James

He tried to be 'fashionably anti-royal' and it backfired on him.

Pretty much


He has now penned an apology

He wrote: "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.

"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 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... What had I done?

"I needed no lessons on the centuries slurs equating simians and people of colour. Racism at it's basest.

'Crass and regrettable blunder'
"But it was a genuine, naive and catastrophic mistake. There is of course little media/twitter traction in such a straight-forward explanation. The picture in context as presented was obviously shamefully racist. It was never intended so - seriously who on earth would 'go there'?"

He added: "Anyway I am now paying the price for this crass and regrettable blunder and rightly so. Probably even this final word from me will extend the mania. ('Dog whistle' anyone?) I would like to thank friends on here for their kinder words and once again - I am so, so sorry."

On Thursday, a casually dressed Baker joked with journalists on his doorstep that the tweet was a "stupid gag".