Last night he refused to expand on his 500-word statement issued to the media, but the former Radio 4 Today programme’s defence and diplomatic correspondent could return to newspapers.

He is writing an article expected to appear in The Mail on Sunday tomorrow. Last June that newspaper published his infamous follow-up piece to his controversial Today broadcast. However, it remained unclear whether he has been offered a full-time contract at the Associated Newspapers title, although he is in negotiations with Mail on Sunday executives.

A return to The Sunday Telegraph, where he worked before joining the BBC in 1999, cannot be ruled out, either. And like his adversary Alastair Campbell, he may have been keeping a meticulous diary of events that could be turned into a book and earn him a lucrative advance.

But one thing he will not be doing after last night’s announcement is working for the BBC. Mr Gilligan was hired by the former Today editor Rod Liddle to give more edge to the broadcaster’s flagship morning programme. Accused of being arrogant and a maverick, Mr Gilligan soon created enemies within Government with his relentless pursuit of a story. He made life uncomfortable for ministers and their aides, creating an air of suspicion. He knew where to look for the big stories and that made ministers uneasy.

But his critics were not confined to Government. Kevin Marsh, Liddle’s successor at Today, told a colleague that the journalist’s fateful story on the Government’s Iraq weapons dossier was “marred by flawed reporting”.

Richard Sambrook, the BBC head of news, who has also come under pressure to resign in the fallout from the Hutton report, said that he had some reservations over the accuracy of Mr Gilligan’s reports.

However, Mr Sambrook had been happy to back his reporter ahead of the crucial meeting of the BBC governors in July.

He told the inquiry that his former employee “painted in primary colours” and there were question marks over “nuance and subtlety” in his work. That manifested itself in the now infamous 6.07am “two-way” on May 29, when he made his false accusation. John Humphrys, the presenter, asked him about Tony Blair’s 45-minute claim, that Saddam Hussein could launch weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes.

Mr Gilligan’s unscripted response was: “We’ve been told by one of the senior officials in charge of drawing up that dossier that, actually, the Government probably knew that that 45-minute figure was wrong, even before it decided to put it in.”

That sparked a bitter row between Mr Blair’s Government and the BBC, which this week ended in defeat and resignations for the corporation. But it was by no means the first time that Mr Gilligan had irritated the Government and Alastair Campbell.

The first breakdown in relations came in November 2000 with a story about a draft European Union constitution. Rubbished by spin-doctors, the document was eventually published last year, and played down by Peter Hain as “a tidying-up” exercise. Mr Gilligan also annoyed No 10 by reporting that Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, was going on a skiing trip on the eve of the Iraq war. Last April Mr Gilligan’s relations with the spin-doctors hit a new low after a report that claimed Baghdad residents were living in “more fear than they have ever known” after the fall of Saddam. Despite his reputation for aloofness, the 35-year-old Mr Gilligan was respected for his ability to unearth stories and for the long hours he worked. Former Sunday Telegraph colleagues recall him regularly toiling through the night.

Television pictures before and during the Hutton inquiry depicted a confident and smug figure, declining comments to his media colleagues. The son of a teacher and computer software engineer, Mr Gilligan was born in Teddington in 1968. After attending the local comprehensive he studied history at Cambridge, moving on to begin his journalistic career on the Cambridge Evening News. He moved to London as a freelance journalist before working on The Sunday Telegraph ’s foreign desk, later becoming defence correspondent and reporting from Kosovo before joining the BBC in 1999.

During his time with the BBC, Mr Gilligan reported from about 40 countries. But it will be that Charing Cross interview with David Kelly, the May 29 Today broadcast and the subsequent crisis for which he will be remembered.

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