Philip Schofield to stay on air as ITV receives Lord McAlpine letter

ITV's Director of Television Peter Fincham said tonight that This Morning presenter Phillip Schofield would "stay on air" after he confronted David Cameron with a list of alleged paedophiles live on TV, adding that the action was "something we shouldn't have done."

Speaking to ITV News UK Editor Lucy Manning, Mr Fincham said that Mr Schofield "realises his mistake. He apologised for it extremely fully and extremely quickly."

"I think he's under no illusions that this was a lapse in ITV journalism," he said.

The ITV boss also confirmed that he had received a letter from Lord McAlpine's legal team today to which ITV would respond "very quickly."

Broadcasting watchdog Ofcom has launched investigations into ITV1's This Morning and BBC's Newsnight after complaints the shows breached "generally accepted standards".

The shows are also under scrutiny for "the application of standards to prevent unfair treatment to an individual, and unwarranted infringements of privacy".

The programmes involved are the November 2 Newsnight which wrongly implicated Lord McAlpine in a paedophile ring that targeted children at a care home in Wrexham in north Wales, and the November 8 This Morning where presenter Phillip Schofield confronted David Cameron with a list of alleged paedophiles.

Lord McAlpine reached a £185,000 settlement with the BBC over false claims made in a Newsnight report, the corporation and lawyers for the peer confirmed tonight.

ITV said earlier today that it has taken "appropriate disciplinary action" over the incident which saw Schofield roundly criticised for handing the Prime Minister a list of names - understood to be Conservative Party figures - during the live show which he said he had put together from internet rumours.

An ITV spokesman said: "Last Thursday we began an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the mistake on that day's This Morning programme, for which both Phillip Schofield and ITV apologised.

"This investigation has now concluded and the appropriate disciplinary action has been taken.

"We sincerely apologise because the way in which the issue was raised was clearly wrong and should have been handled differently. We have taken steps to make sure our editorial processes are always properly followed, which was not the case in this instance, and to ensure such an error will not be made again."

The presenter was later forced to apologise after the list was briefly exposed on screen raising fears individuals could be identified.

After being handed the list, which Schofield said he assembled after trawling the internet for three minutes, the Prime Minister warned online discussions of an alleged paedophile ring could degenerate into a "witch-hunt" against people who are gay.