Number 10 has rejected claims that Stephen Byers planned to wind-up Railtrack a month before the decision was announced.

Survivors of the Paddington rail crash said on Tuesday that the transport secretary told them at a meeting on September 12 last year that the railway infrastructure company "wouldn't be much trouble much longer".

The announcement that Railtrack was being placed in administration was made on October 7.

Byers told parliament that the decision had not been made until October 5.

A spokesman for the department of transport insisted that no decision had been taken at the time of the meeting.

The FT notes that it is the fourth time in recent months that Byers has been accused of lying.