Gavyn Davies, the BBC Chairman, has resigned today after a damning indictment by Lord Hutton of the corporation and its journalist Andrew Gilligan.

Lord Hutton was delivering a summary of the findings of his report into the death of weapons expert Dr David Kelly.

Mr Davies offered his resignation at an informal meeting of the BBC governors today and will step down with immediate effect.

Mr Davies said that the people at the top of organisations should accept responsibility for their actions. "I have been brought up to believe that you cannot choose your own referee, and that the referee's decision is final," he said.

The BBC said that the governors accepted Mr Davies’ decision “with great reluctance and regret”.

Greg Dyke, the BBC Director General, accepted earlier that "certain key allegations" reported by Mr Gilligan on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme on May 29 last year were wrong and said the BBC apologised for them.

Mr Gilligan said in his May broadcast that the Government had "sexed up" its dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and had included information probably knowing it to be wrong.

Lord Hutton said that these claims by Mr Gilligan were "unfounded" and the BBC editorial system was "defective" because of its failure to supervise the reporter.

The BBC governors are due to formally meet again tomorrow, to give more orderly consideration to the contents of Lord Hutton’s report.

It appears likely that the governors will look to stand by its reporter Mr Gilligan, after Mr Dyke robustly defended "the greater part" of the BBC’s coverage of the dossier.

The Government and in particular, Alastair Campbell, the former No 10 director of communications, Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, and John Scarlett, the head of the Joint Intelligence Committee, escaped severe censure by Lord Hutton for their role in the Kelly affair, although the Ministry of Defence was rebuked for its handling of Dr Kelly.

Lord Hutton said that Tony Blair and other senior officials were involved in discussions about Dr Kelly's meeting with Mr Gilligan, but that he was satisfied the Government had acted "reasonably" and that there had been no "underhand strategy" to deliberately leak the scientist's name to the media.

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