The prime minister should sack children's minister Margaret Hodge following her dispute with a victim of the Islington child abuse scandal, the Conservatives said on Sunday.

Shadow health and education secretary Tim Yeo said Tony Blair should remove the minister.

"The way she has behaved in the last few days is incompatible with her role as children's minister," he told Sky News.

The controversy had shown the "very poor judgment" of the minister responsible for the welfare of children

"I think if Tony Blair is serious about taking child abuse as an important issue he should sack her this week," Yeo said.

On Friday Hodge attempted to stave off a libel action by apologising for comments she made about child abuse victim Demetrious Panton.

The embattled minister gave an unreserved apology for calling him an "extremely disturbed person" in a letter to the BBC.

The minister wrote to the director general of the BBC in a bid to halt an investigation into her time as leader of Islington council.

Panton has agreed to drop libel action against the minister providing she issues a full public apology, makes a donation to charity and pays his legal costs.

But he has threatened to begin legal action unless the minister complies by 5.00pm on Monday.

In a bid to end the row, Hodge is expected to make a full public apology on Monday.

But it is unlikely to quell calls for her resignation.

Speaking on Sunday Labour peer Lord Hattersley admitted the minister had been humiliated by the dispute.

Writing to the BBC was "a very foolish thing to do", he added.

"I think she's vulnerable. She's not perhaps vulnerable in the short term, but she has to do a number of things which many individuals would regard as such a humiliation as to be too great to endure - or at least too great to endure in office," he said.