The BBC accepted yesterday that it had made false allegations about a minister.

Ben Bradshaw, the fisheries minister and an ex-BBC reporter, repeatedly attacked the journalistic standards of the corporation last summer after its claims that Downing Street had "sexed up" the intelligence dossier on Iraq.

Bradshaw had been angered by the disclosure to the Hutton inquiry of an e-mail from Kevin Marsh, the editor of Radio 4's Today programme, which suggested taking revenge on the minister by dredging up his record at the BBC.

Yesterday, the minister released a letter he has received from Stephen Mitchell, the head of radio news, which acknowledged these allegations were wrong.