Des Browne was battered but still in his job last night as the latest opinion poll showed that the public believes by a two-to-one majority that he should not be forced to resign over the cash-for-stories affair.

A Populus poll for The Times found that 73 per cent of the public believe that the sailors captured by Iran should not have been allowed to sell stories about their ordeal. Only 23 per cent said that they should. But 59 per cent of voters believe that Mr Browne should not lose his job, with 30 per cent saying that he should.

In the eyes of the public the media must shoulder the blame for the row over the sailors being given permission to be paid for their stories, and then for that decision being revoked.

Asked who was most to blame, 24 per cent of respondents pinned the responsibility on the media, 16 per cent on the Ministry of Defence, 14 per cent on Tony Blair, 13 per cent on the Royal Navy, 11 per cent on Mr Browne and 6 per cent on the sailors themselves.

Mr Browne survived his Commons ordeal after repeatedly apologising for not blocking the sale of the stories and announcing two inquiries.

He will remain in his post for now, but there is a widespread belief at Westminster that Gordon Brown will move him if and when he appoints his first government.

Mr Browne told MPs that he “profoundly regretted” the “mistake” and any damage to the reputation of the Armed Forces. He announced an inquiry into the decision and a separate investigation into how the sailors came to be captured in the first place. Liam Fox, the Shadow Defence Secretary, said that Mr Browne had “humiliated” Britain and that his position was “becoming untenable”.

But Labour MPs were not prepared to see Mr Browne sacrificed to demands from the Conservatives. They rallied to him as he said that there had been “no apology and no deal” and that the important point was that “we got our people back, safe and on our terms”.

An inquiry into the capture of the 14 men and one woman would be led by the Governor of Gibraltar, Lieutenant-Gener-al Sir Rob Fulton, Royal Marines, he said. It was important that “Parliament gets the answer it deserves and learns lessons for the future”, said Mr Browne, the MP for Kilmar-nock & Loudoun.

An inquiry into the media handling of the affair would be conducted by a senior military officer and a senior MoD official, both unconnected with the decision. It would be led by an independent figure with wide media experience but would not be a “witch-hunt”, he said.

Mr Fox said: “In a more honourable time in politics, the resignation of a secretary of state who had overseen such a humiliating fiasco on his watch would have been an inevitability. The Secretary of State said he took responsibility but the word ‘sorry’ never passed his lips.”

Mr Browne said: “If he wants me to say sorry, then I’m very happy to say sorry.”

Earlier, Tony Blair’s spokesman said that he had “full confidence” in Mr Browne.

The Labour support was subdued, suggesting loyalty rather than enthusiasm. Several government backbenchers tried to dismiss the sailors’ sale of their stories as an irrelevance. The only exception was Kate Hoey, Labour MP for Vauxhall, who congratulated Mr Browne for his apology and called it refreshing for a minister to admit to a mistake.

But Ms Hoey went on: “I just want to ask him genuinely, because this is the kind of question the public will be asking, if he has made a mistake, if there has been something he admits he has done wrong, what kind of mistake does it then take for a Secretary of State then to decide that, maybe, it is time he should offer his resignation?”

A string of Tory MPs attacked the Defence Secretary. Only one attacked military chiefs rather than the minister. Robert Key, Conservative MP for Salisbury, criticised the Royal Navy for not showing a professional approach to handling the media and asked if the Second Sea Lord, Vice-Admiral Adrian Johns, had offered his resignation.

Mr Brown snapped back that he “had no intention of discussing the status of the Second Sea Lord”. Instead, he was concerned with his own accountability to Parliament.

He also rejected Tory criticism of some of the 15 sailors and Marines who made confessions on Iranian television while in captivity, in which they claimed that they trespassed into Iranian waters.

Mr Browne said that he had no criticism to make of the behaviour of the young sailors and Marines and would not pass judgment from the comfort of the Commons.

However, serious questions have yet to be answered about the original incident that led to their capture on March 23.

Lieutenant-General Sir Robert Fulton, Governor of Gibraltar and former Comman-dant-General of the Royal Marines, has been given the task of conducting an inquiry that will provide those answers.

The Royal Navy and Royal Marines have huge experience of operating in the narrow Gulf waterway and there is concern, if not bewilderment, over the manner in which the 14 service-men and one servicewoman were so easily seized by the Iranian gunmen.

General Fulton, 58, now retired, will have to judge whether the standard operating procedures (SOPs) and the rules of engagement that applied in the Gulf were adequate.

Under the SOPs that existed on March 23, there was no requirement for a helicopter to accompany the Marines and sailors as they set off to board a cargo vessel. The British are charged only with carrying out “compliant boardings” — boardings in which the skipper is offering no resistance. This vessel had been boarded before, with no incident.

If a boarding looks set to be resisted, the multinational coalition operating in the Gulf sends for well-armed Americans, along with helicopters and a confrontational attitude.

According to defence sources, the Lynx helicopter on board Cornwall, the mother ship from which the boarding party had been sent, was deployed anyway because it was available. However, once the boarding had been seen to go to plan the Lynx was summoned back to ship for other tasks, although it was placed on 30-minute notice to return.

General Fulton will need to find out why the Lynx was not placed on a shorter notice. Clearly, the helicopter needed to be refuelled. But it still took 20 minutes when it was recalled to provide assistance to the boarding party. Those missing 20 minutes were vital for the 15 Marines and sailors.

The rules of engagement will also be high on General Fulton’s list of concerns.

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