Tory minister Nick Boles attacks the BBC's Newsnight programme after it looks into claims of bullying in his party

Lord Feldman was alleged to have been told about bullying claims five years ago

Lord Feldman, one of David Cameron's inner circle and the party's chairman, is at the centre of the row (Getty)

A Conservative minister has attacked the BBC’s Newsnight programme after it looked into claims of bullying in the Conservative party’s youth wing.

Nick Boles, a minister at the business department, claimed the news programme was conducting a “witch hunt” by reporting on allegations made against Conservative chair Lord Feldman.

Writing on the ConservativeHome website, which is widely read by activists, Mr Boles claimed that Newsnight had “hemorrhaged its best reporters in recent weeks” and was “a sinking ship trying desperately to reassert its political relevance”.

He defended the peer and Tory chairman, arguing that he had “done the party a great service”.

The row over bullying in the Tory party’s youth wing came to the fore after the apparent suicide of Elliott Johnson, a young Conservative activist who is reported to have named other Tories in a note.

It has been alleged by Tory activist Andrew Sullivan that Lord Feldman was handed a written dossier detailing claims of bullying in the Tory party’s youth wing as far back as 2010. Lord Feldman says he became aware of bulling in August 2015.

“The death of one good man will not be assuaged by giving into a media witch hunt and forcing another good man to resign. The BBC claims to be a standard bearer for objective and well-sourced reporting,” Mr Boles wrote.

“So it’s frankly extraordinary that earlier this week it allowed Newsnight and then Today to lead with a story about a dossier which apparently they have not even seen, and broadcast one man’s claim that it was shown to Lord Feldman in 2010 without any corroborating evidence to back his assertion up.”

Nick Boles, business minister (Rex Features)

Lord Feldman is seen as one of David Cameron’s “inner circle” and attended Oxford University with him. He also played a key role in his campaign to be elected leader of the Conservative party.

Last week The Sun newspaper reported that a closely-grouped flurry of similar tweets from Tory MPs in defence of Lord Feldman had been orchestrated by a Downing Street official going door-to-door around MPs’ offices.

The same newspaper today reports that Mark Clarke, the activist at the centre of bullying claims, which he denies, was given missions by Downing Street targeting certain activists.

A BBC spokesperson stood by the programme’s reporting and said it was “well sourced” and included a denial.

“Newsnight has broken a series of important stories about the Conservative party’s failure properly to act on warnings about bullying and the behaviour of Mark Clarke. Its latest story, about a 2010 dossier given to Lord Feldman and Sayeeda Warsi, was well sourced and fairly aired Lord Feldman’s denial that he received the document,” the spokesperson said.

“Lord Feldman’s account of what he knew about Mark Clarke is now contradicted both by one of his own MPs and a Conservative activist. It would be very curious if anyone thought that was not an important story worth reporting.”