Ofcom today confirmed it has launched investigations into a Newsnight report linking a senior Tory to child sex allegations and a blunder by ITV’s This Morning that saw host Phillip Schofield disclose a list of alleged paedophiles to Prime Minister David Cameron.

The 2 November report by Newsnight led directly to the resignation of BBC director-general George Entwistle after the programme mistakenly linked a senior Conservative politician from the Thatcher era – wrongly named elsewhere as Lord McAlpine – to an allegation of child sex abuse at a North Wales Care Home.

This morning McAlpine’s solicitors revealed they were close to reaching a settlement with the BBC, but that they also intended to go after every individual who linked him on Twitter to the allegations.