A Liberal Democrat press officer has described himself as "a complete idiot" in an attempt to defuse a possible row over BBC political bias.

Andy McGuffie, a senior press and broadcasting officer, issued a public apology after he sent an email to a long list of media organisations instead of party activists.

The message suggested he had been asked by Daisy Sampson, a former aide to Charles Kennedy who helps present the Daily Politics, the new BBC2 political programme, to supply details of Conservative gaffes.

"Daisy S called from The Daily Politics to say that they are running a feature on the show called The Dukes of Hansard, a short thing on MPs making fools of themselves - tripping over words, etc etc,"

"If we have any suggestions, she would like to know ... she didn't exactly say 'especially Tories', but it was all but ...!"

Sampson was reported to be too angry to speak.