PANORAMA, the BBC’s flagship current affairs show, came under pressure this weekend to settle a £1m libel dispute with a leading IVF doctor after the government’s fertility watchdog was forced to clarify comments it made on the programme.

Mohamed Taranissi, one of Britain’s richest doctors, is suing the show after it claimed that one of his central London clinics, the Assisted Reproduction and Gynaecology Centre (ARGC), offered “unnecessary and unproven” treatment to an undercover reporter posing as a patient.

The investigation, broadcast last January, featured Angela McNab, chief executive of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), criticising experimental IVF therapies offered by Taranissi. Last night the chairman of an influential parliamentary committee called for McNab’s resignation.

The programme also claimed that Taranissi was boosting success rates at the ARGC by sending his older and harder-to-treat patients to an unlicensed second clinic, the Reproductive Genetics Institute (RGI).

It prompted Taranissi, 53, to launch libel proceedings against the BBC and threaten action against the HFEA.

A press conference held by the HFEA immediately after it raided Taranissi’s clinics was also featured on the show, fronted by Kate Silverton, the BBC Breakfast presenter. But the raids were later ruled unlawful.

On Friday, the HFEA agreed to a humiliating statement in the High Court, leaving the BBC in a precarious position. The HFEA said it had never intended that Taranissi was at fault in offering patients reproductive immunology therapies.

It said: “There is no conclusive evidence to show that these treatments are either beneficial or ineffective. However, some doctors genuinely believe that they offer benefits, and they are doing nothing wrong in providing such tests and treatments.”

The statement added: “Nothing that was said on behalf of the HFEA was intended as a criticism of the clinical standards, treatment and patient care offered by Mr Taranissi at the ARGC or RGI. The HFEA accepts that Mr Taranissi is committed to providing the best possible outcome for his patients.”

Earlier this year, the HFEA refused to publish the ARGC’s birth statistics, claiming they were still under review. But they were posted on its website after Taranissi began his legal action.

In Friday’s court statement, the HFEA confirmed that the ARGC has been Britain’s most successful IVF clinic for the past 10 years. Some 60% of women under 35 become mothers after treatment at the ARGC.

His supporters have accused the HFEA of conducting a “witch-hunt” against the Egyptian-born doctor, which has resulted in the watchdog running up a legal bill of hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Yesterday, Phil Willis, chairman of the Commons science and technology select committee, called on McNab - who is on secondment to the Department of Health - to quit.

“Angela McNab must go,” he said. “She should not return to the HFEA. The raids on the Taranissi clinics were a knee-jerk reaction rather than a careful review of the licences of his clinics.

“The authority responded in a cavalier fashion. When decisions are taken which cause the authority to act illegally, then it causes a loss of faith in the regulator.”

Taranissi claims that Panorama made defamatory allegations about his techniques and has caused lasting damage to his professional reputation. If he successfully sues the BBC, the broadcaster could face a bill of £1m in damages and legal costs.

The BBC said: “The BBC continues to defend the libel claim brought by Mr Taranissi. The Panorama investigation was extensively researched over many months and also raised a number of issues unrelated to Mr Taranissi’s complaint against the HFEA.”

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