UK gay rights charity Stonewall has apologised to Match of the Day’s production team after mistakenly accusing them of “insensitivity towards the lesbian community” by encouraging regular pundit Mark Lawrenson to grow his moustache back for Movember.

Appearing on the newly-commissioned Match of the Day 47 highlights programme, the former Liverpool defender agreed to replenish his upper lip with hair in order to raise awareness of prostate cancer, a move which Stonewall publically condemned as “blatant and fallacious stereotyping of the lesbian community, members of whom can be as soft and sleek as any heterosexual woman, we think you’ll find”.

A spokesperson for Stonewall said: “We genuinely did not realise that Mr Lawrenson is not in fact a middle-aged lesbian and we would like to apologise unreservedly to him and the rest of the Match of the Day team for any distress our error may have caused them.

“However, having reviewed the tapes, we would like to make it clear that David Ginola dyes his hair and that the Irish presenter looks a bit like the speccy one out of Mel and Sue.”

Lawrenson quipped: “They’ll have to pay a Stonewall penalty for that!”

Please visit uk.movember.com to find out more about Movember and how you can contribute to supporting prostate cancer and testicular cancer initiatives.