Prime Minister Tony Blair stood shoulder-to-shoulder with his embattled Minister for Children yesterday, describing Margaret Hodge as “the best person for the job.”

Mrs Hodge issued a public court apology yesterday to former child abuse victim Demetrious Panton.

She has faced mounting calls for her resignation over the last fortnight after she described the consultant at John Prescott’s Office of the Deputy Prime Minister as “extremely disturbed” in a letter to the BBC.

Mr Panton was in care when Mrs Hodge was leader of Islington Borough Council during the 1980s.

But Mr Blair told MPs she had “answered the claims properly.”

At Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday, Tory leader Michael Howard criticised her continued employment. He called on the Prime Minister to remove the minister who had “bullied her way out of trouble.”

Mr Howard told the Commons: “You may care about vulnerable ministers, we care about vulnerable children.”

Mrs Hodge has agreed to pay £10,000 to a children’s charity as well as covering Mr Panton’s legal costs.

Speaking outside the High Court, Mr Panton said: “I am here today victorious over a minister who made a damning remark about me and has had to withdraw that remark because there was absolutely no basis for it.”