Following the publishing of minutes of two post-Hutton BBC governors meetings, sacked BBC director-general Greg Dyke appeared on Radio Four's Today programme this morning, saying that the documents revealed he had been fired from the post because culture secretary Tessa Jowell "did not like him."

Dyke said he was in no doubt that the BBC went about its reporting of the Iraq war and the alleged "sexing-up" of the weapons-of-mass destruction dossier, in "the correct way."

He added: "This government will never like the BBC, and they don't like the BBC because it has tried to hold them to account for what they've done."

When presenter John Humphrys asked former BBC governor Baroness Ruth Deech, also appearing on the same programme, "Why did you fire him?", she said there was no point going over 'who said what' as it was three years ago, but added that in light of evidence revealed since, she queried whether the same decision, would have been taken today.

Though Jowell herself, who telephoned the programme following Dyke's appearance, said claims that she was involved in Dyke's sacking in 2004 were "complete and utter rubbish".

She said had been "extremely fond" of Dyke since he helped her out during a Royal Television Society session in Cambridge.

"I think you have got to put this all in the context of the time. Yes, relations between the government and the BBC in the wake of Hutton and so forth were tense and strained. That isn't the point. The BBC is bigger than that," she added. "You can express a view but the point is that we have always got to be clear that the BBC is independent."

The minutes released also reveal BBC governors' fears over sacking Dyke, and the impact on the future of the corporation. During one of the meetings, Stephen Dando, head of BBC People, said the "vast majority" of BBC managers supported Dyke continuing in his post, and that his departure could be "extremely destabilising" and its consequences "very profound".