John Prescott's attack on a senior Labour colleague for forcing Stephen Byers' resignation as transport secretary has triggered an angry response from backbench MPs.

The deputy prime minister has been accused of attempting to "intimidate" Commons select committees and of shifting blame for his own failures as transport secretary.

Prescott earlier accused Gwyneth Dunwoody, the tough-talking and highly regarded chairman of the Commons transport select committee, of putting "the final knife into the back of Stephen Byers".

On Sunday the Labour-dominated committee published a hard-hitting report which slammed the government's £180 billion 10 year transport strategy as lacking coherent thinking and with an "incomprehensible" approach to the costs of motoring.

"It's true they made a savage attack in words and language and frankly, we must say that the select committee and Gwyneth Dunwoody put the final knife into the back of Stephen Byers," Prescott told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Prescott, who was responsible for transport policy before Stephen Byers took over the brief, also admitted that failing to renationalise the rail network in 1997 may have been a mistake.

"You can say history looks - that perhaps that was not the best decision - but at that time, we were trying to stabilise the economy," he said.

"We needed more money for health and education and we didn't want to put it into Railtrack and compensation. You can say the decision was wrong, but I suspect if I'd have been making the same decision then...I would have probably made the same decision."

Select committee member Louise Ellman, warned Prescott not to "intimidate" MPs.

"I think it is very wrong of the deputy prime minister to try to intimidate select committees," the Liverpool MP said.

Like many other Labour backbenchers, Ellman believes Byers to have been the victim of vested interests in the City.

"Stephen Byers was a marked man. He clashed with vested interests over Railtrack. I believe that is what decided his fate and I was sorry to see him go," she said.

"But I will continue to criticise when I think it is necessary to do so and I am sure the rest of the committee will as well."

Select committees had a vital role in scrutinising government plans and suggesting improvements, she added.

Another Labour MP and transport select committee member Brian Donohoe suggested that the deputy prime minister was trying to pass the buck for his own failures.

"If you want to know what he calls Gwyneth it's 'Vinegar Lil'," the Cunninghame South MP said.

"[Our] report was not part of the process that led to Stephen Byers's resignation. It was the dripping venom that had been going on for some considerable time from every source.

"In actual fact, the relationship between the committee and Stephen Byers was a good relationship. John Prescott clashed with the committee but Stephen Byers did not."