BBC: Under fire but fighting back

Tessa Jowell has denied claims that the government is planning to settle scores with the BBC by scrapping its board of governors.

The intervention came as relations between Labour and the BBC soured yet further following an attack on government ministers.

Gavyn Davies claimed that ministers are attempting to strip the corporation of its status because they have failed to "to bring the BBC to heel".

"Our integrity is under attack, and we are chastised for taking a different view on editorial matters from that of the government and its supporters," said the BBC chairman.

"Because we have had the temerity to do this, it is hinted that a system that has protected the BBC for 80 years should be swept away and replaced by an external regulator that will 'bring the BBC to heel'."

Davies called on the government to respect the independence of the corporation. He is said to fear that ministers will act for political reasons following the row which led to the death of Dr David Kelly.

"I trust that wiser heads in the government will prevail. There is only one reason why the BBC has been able to build the trust of its audiences over so many years, and that is because it is emphatically not the voice of the state," said the chairman of the board of governors.

"Everyone in politics says that they would never wish to make it so, but sometimes their actions belie this. When that happens, the BBC needs its board of governors to stand up and say halt."

But the culture secretary denied any suggestion that row over Andrew Gilligan's weapons report would affect the BBC's future.

"Once again, the government repeats: There is no question whatsoever of the dispute with the BBC over Mr Gilligan's claim affecting in any shape or form the BBC's licence fee or its charter," she said.

"We have made it plain throughout that we will uphold completely the independence of the BBC. This has been stated time and again.

"The charter review that was due in the normal way will be conducted in the normal way without any reference whatever to recent events.

"We entirely reject the BBC chairman's attempt to confuse our desire to correct the original story by Mr Gilligan with an attack on the BBC's independence.

"We suggest the BBC should now allow the Hutton Inquiry to take its course without further enflaming this issue."

The clash came as Commons leader Peter Hain called for a new deal between the government and broadcasters.

"Politicians, news broadcasters and journalists now form a 'political class' which is in a frenzied world of its own, completely divorced from the people, and which is turning off viewers, listeners and readers from politics by the million," he said in an article for the Independent on Sunday.

"Government can do more to cut out the spin. But equally the media can do more to report substance. If we don't burst this Westminster bubble, we will all go down together."

Despite attempts to calm the situation the BBC is standing firm in the face of unprecedented pressure from ministers.

Davies denied claims that the war of words between Downing Street and the BBC was simply about the "sexed up" weapons story.

"Alastair Campbell's recent attack on the BBC was not mainly about Andrew Gilligan's story on the Today programme, but amounted to a full-frontal assault on the motivation, skill and professionalism of the entire news operation," he said.

"Coming from where it did, the governors could not simply let this attack pass unchallenged."

Opposition parties have warned the government against acting with "vengeance" on the BBC.

Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said using the "spat with the BBC" to engineer radical reform of the corporation would be wrong.

"What is right is what we are doing, which is to have a proper look at what the BBC does, what its functions are as a public broadcasting service and whether it succeeds in achieving that," he told Sky News.

Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy said the government would be "very unwise" to challenge the independence of the broadcaster.

"The quicker this spat with the BBC moves on, the better. I think the government are very unwise to allow themselves to be portrayed as somehow calling into question the independence of the BBC. That's a big mistake," he told Breakfast with Frost.

"This government will come and go, like any other government, but the BBC is here to stay as an independent broadcasting organisation on a global level, and ministers would do well to remember that."