A TOP surgeon attacked a fellow doctor who questioned whether BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg was attractive enough to be on TV, a tribunal was told.

Dr David Wilkinson MBE, 58, punched Dr Lawrence King in the face on a boozy night out after the latter allegedly said the 42-year-old journalist would look better “with a bag over her head”.

Dr King, in his fifties, was hit three times and got a gash behind his ear.

The medics were on a lads’ holiday in Bilbao, Spain, and had drunk about seven pints before the row in a busy restaurant in June last year.

Dr King told a medical tribunal in Manchester: “I thought we were engaging in good-natured conversation. We had a bit of alcohol. I did not say her opinions count less because of her looks.

“I remember looking at him and he looked angry. He walked behind me and I suspected something was going to happen.

“I looked back and caught his fist in my open hand. He punched me a second time. I remember a heavy blow to the back on my head.

“I don’t have much recollection after that. I then recall seeing my glasses broken on the floor.”

Asked if he thought Ms Kuenssberg “wasn’t attractive enough” to present news, Dr King said: “I don’t recall that. All I remember saying was she had a lopsided smile.”

But pal Dr Michael Scarland said: “Lawrence said she’d look better with a bag over her head, which annoyed David.

“He then said, ‘You could cut a couple of holes so she could see’.”

General Medical Council lawyer Emma Gilsenan said: “They’d consumed quite a lot of alcohol and it was said they were having vigorous banter.”

Vascular surgery specialist Dr Wilkinson, who works as a post-graduate dean for Health Education England in Yorkshire, admits punching Dr King and faces being struck off the medical register for misconduct. The tribunal continues.