Stubbs claims minister's aides made him the exams scapegoat

The Government was plunged into a new row over spin yesterday when the former head of the exams watchdog accused aides to Estelle Morris of "scapegoating" him for this summer's A-level fiasco.

Sir William Stubbs said David-John Collins, head of news at the Education Department, and Chris Boffey, a special adviser to Ms Morris, the former education secretary, briefed journalists that he was to be sacked as head of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA).

Now MPs on the Education Select Committee are to summon the two to appear before them.

Sir William, who was giving evidence to the committee, said the briefings took place while an independent inquiry was investigating the case and that he had asked Ms Morris to put a stop to them because they were "highly improper". Sir William, who is threatening to sue the Government for unfair dismissal, said the two had told reporters the QCA was "dead in the water and that, by the end of the week, I would not be chairman.

"I told her she had to stop it," he said. "If she did act and they didn't, then that was wrong. If she didn't act, then that's a scandal. Either these people were acting as free agents, in which case they're loose cannons, or they were acting under instructions. Either way, it shouldn't have happened.

"I feel I've been dismissed and used as a scapegoat.''

The independent inquiry, headed by Mike Tomlinson, former chief inspector of schools, cleared Sir William of malpractice but said exam boards had perceived themselves to be under pressure to mark down papers because of his comments. Ms Morris sacked Sir William on the day the report was published.

Sir William said he had dealt with Mr Collins before over a review of the QCA's performance earlier in the year "and I knew the way he operated". He said government briefings on that report had been critical of the QCA but the report had praised the exams watchdog.

"I knew Collins would give reporters stories and then say if you don't report the stories in a way that is friendly then you will be cut off and get no stories. That, in my opinion, was highly improper and wrong," he added.

Sir William accused the Department for Education and Skills of "buckling under pressure" and "panicking" after heads complained over the marking of A-levels.

He said that, because of the reaction, the confidence of students, parents, teachers and universities in the examination system had been "significantly and quite unnecessarily weakened". He added: "There was no crisis. The system had not failed at all.''

Barry Sheerman, the Labour chairman of the select committee, said afterwards that he wanted to call the two aides to give evidence to the MPs. "It would be quite wrong if we didn't get from the people named their side of the story," he said.

Mr Boffey left the department when Ms Morris resigned two weeks ago. Mr Collins is still head of news.