The BBC�s flagship Newsnight programme was drawn into the controversy over misleading viewers yesterday after admitting it had wrongly implied its survey of business opinion found overwhelming opposition to Scottish independence.

The BBC's flagship Newsnight programme was drawn into the controversy over misleading viewers yesterday after admitting it had wrongly implied its survey of business opinion found overwhelming opposition to Scottish independence.

After a week of embarrassing revelations about deceiving viewers and listeners over some of its programmes' competitions, the latest revelation goes to the heart of the corporation's news and current affairs output. It follows an apology for the treatment of SNP leader Alex Salmond by Newsnight presenter Kirsty Wark, after she abruptly ended a live interview last month.

The BBC conceded it had misrepresented a survey of opinion after a viewer complained about a debate over the 300th anniversary of the Act of Union in Edinburgh's old Parliament Hall, which was hosted by presenter Jeremy Paxman on January 16.

In quizzing Mr Salmond, he said a survey of business opinion found none were willing to support independence. However, he failed to say only seven out of 50 companies had answered the survey, and that most opted to be neutral during the election campaign.

Jeremy Paxman began the interview with Mr Salmond, now First Minister, by saying "we spoke to the 25 largest companies in Britain and the 25 largest companies in Scotland and none of them favoured independence".

As it was a recurring theme of campaigning that Labour said business was against independence, but hardly any business representatives were willing to say so, The Herald asked for details of the survey at the time, but the BBC refused to release them - saying they were "insufficiently robust" to make the statistics public.

The BBC's complaints ruling stated: "The great majority of the companies contacted had declined to express a view on independence, so the results of the exercise didn't warrant the claim that none favoured it, or the implication that the biggest Scottish and British companies were ranged against it."

Pete Wishart, the SNP's culture and media spokesman at Westminster, said: "It is an extraordinary series of events from the BBC in London and it's time for the organisation not only to consider its attitude to phone-ins and game shows, but how it treats Scotland and the new administration."