Leaked emails suggest that Newsnight editor Peter Rippon played down the importance of an investigation into Jimmy Savile’s alleged child abuse, saying the victims were “teenagers, not too young” and the abuse was not the “worst kind of sexual offences”.

A Newsnight reporter alleged that her editor tried to “kill” the Jimmy Savile story by making “impossible editorial demands” and saying the women who spoke out about the TV star were not too young at the time of the incidents.

A Panorama documentary will tonight plunge the BBC into fresh controversy by claiming the corporation pulled an investigation into the Jimmy Savile sex abuse scandal after coming under pressure from senior managers.