Red-faced Labour leader Ed Miliband made an embarrassing error when paying tribute to quiz show host Bob Holness.

Mr Miliband has become the latest politician to come a cropper on Twitter after accidentally praising Mr Holness for his work on "Blackbusters".

In a tweeted tribute to long-time Kent resident Mr Holness, whose death was announced on Friday, the Labour leader said he remembered Mr Holness fondly for presenting "Blackbusters" - rather than Blockbusters.

The gaffe came just a day after Mr Miliband had rebuked fellow Labour MP Diane Abbott over a Twitter post in which she said: "White people love playing divide and rule."

Mr Miliband tweeted: "Sad to hear that Bob Holness has died. A generation will remember him fondly from Blackbusters."

Party officials swiftly deleted the tweet, but by then it had already gone global.

Mr Miliband's aides blamed the error on a junior member of staff.

A spokesman for the Labour leader said: "It was a typo by one of the people in the office. Ed always knows what is being tweeted - sometimes he types them himself, sometimes someone else does."

The family of Mr Holness, 83, said he had died peacefully in his sleep early on Friday morning.

Shortly after his birth in South Africa, his family moved to Ashford.

As a young man, he attended Ashford Grammar School - now Norton Knatchbull - and later worked at Geerings Printers.

Mr Holness had a career spanning almost 60 years, but was best known as the host of TV quiz show Blockbusters.

He was a patron of Find A Voice, the Ashford charity that supports people with severe speech and communication difficulties, for about 15 years.