Furious Dyke says Hutton was wrong

Ousted BBC chief Greg Dyke today went on the offensive, declaring Lord Hutton was "quite clearly wrong" in some parts of his report on the death of David Kelly.

Less than 24 hours after being forced out of his job, the former director-general angrily said: "We were shocked it was so black and white."

And he turned his fire on former Downing Street press chief Alastair Campbell. Mr Dyke's defiant intervention reopened the war between the broadcaster and Downing Street only a day after Tony Blair said he hoped to draw a line under the affair.

Mr Dyke turned on Mr Campbell, who called for his resignation, accusing him of being "ungracious" after the Hutton report came out.

And he made clear he only resigned to protect the BBC, not because he felt he had done wrong, saying: "We did have to draw a line under this. There was a danger that it would just go on and be quite damaging for the BBC."

His furious attack came as Mr Blair faced a stinging public backlash over the crisis at the BBC. With the corporation leaderless and many staff in open revolt, there were charges that the Government had turned the screw too far in insisting on a total BBC surrender.

A crop of new opinion polls demonstrated that, despite the verdict of the Hutton Inquiry, many still believe Downing Street rather than the BBC bosses deserved blame for the David Kelly affair.

A poll by ICM for The Guardian found 45 per cent of voters believing Mr Blair lied over his claim that he did not authorise the leaking of Dr Kelly's name to the media, despite Hutton's verdict clearing him of that and other charges.

A survey by YouGov for the Daily Telegraph saw 56 per cent saying the inquiry was a whitewash and that Lord Hutton had been too ready to sympathise with the Government.

There were signs that opinion was divided with many believing that the BBC's Andrew Gilligan, whose report triggered the confrontation with the Government, should step down. And the Guardian poll found 47 per cent of voters believing the weapons scientist was "at least partly the author of his own misfortune".

The Government, however, stood accused of "trying to grind an independent broadcaster into the ground".

That charge came from Richard Ayre, former controller of BBC editorial policy. And former BBC chairman Sir Christopher Bland, a close ally of Mr Dyke's, accused Lord Hutton of having "whitewashed" the Government and "tarred and feathered" the broadcasters.

Critics of the Government pointed to the way Downing Street yesterday rejected the initial apology from Mr Dyke, soon after the Hutton report was published, and demanded a full-scale grovel from the governors.

The Prime Minister's spokesman insisted that Mr Dyke's words "do not amount to a considered statement from the BBC governors, and that's what we need". That was duly delivered a few hours later by the acting chairman of the governors, Lord Ryder, a former Tory chief whip.

He delivered an "unreserved apology" for the allegations made by Mr Gilligan - and defended by his bosses - over the dossier on the weapons threat from Iraq, and for errors in the corporation's news operation.

Mr Dyke, after his resignation was announced, made clear his disagreement with the apparent surrender. "I couldn't quite work out what they were apologising for," he said.

An unnamed senior BBC executive described the governors as "rabbits stuck in front of the headlights," adding: "These are people who are not used to taking the heat."

Mr Blair himself said that he wanted to "draw a line under the affair and that the apology met his demand".