The BBC was scrambling last night to limit the damage done in a scandal that has seen director-general George Entwistle quit and chairman Lord Patten call for a “radical overhaul” of the publicly funded British broadcaster.

The BBC boss resigned after only eight weeks in the post following the admission that he had not known about an investigation aired on Newsnight, a BBC news programme, that mistakenly linked a senior political figure to child abuse. It is the second scandal to rock the broadcaster in the past month following allegations that television presenter Jimmy Savile sexually abused teenage children.

Lord Patten, the former chairman of the Conservative party, said he would not respond to calls for his resignation that had appeared in some Sunday newspapers. “I think my job is to make sure that we now learn the lessons from the crisis,” he said. “If I don’t do that and don’t restore huge confidence and trust in the BBC then I’m sure people will tell me to take my cards and clear off. But I will not take my marching orders from Mr Murdoch’s newspapers.”