Malcolm Wicks has become an education minister since the publication of his committee's critical report

"We reject the assertion that some of Mr Woodhead's views cannot be substantiated by inspection or other evidence. They can."

The select committee report into Ofsted, which attacked Mr Woodhead's controversial management style, was produced under the chairmanship of Malcolm Wicks, who was appointed an education minister on Thursday.

In a joint response, the Department for Education also closed ranks against Ofsted's critics, rejecting the committee's call for a supervisory body to oversee the inspection service and its chief inspector.

Such a supervisory body, strongly recommended by MPs, was described by the Department for Education as likely to "add complexity at the expense of clarity and constrain the ability of the chief inspector to speak out about the strengths and weaknesses of education".

Teachers 'disappointed'

The government's response also defended Mr Woodhead from the select committee's call for him to stop becoming a "pundit or polemicist" and to consider the impact on teachers' morale of his public pronouncements.

"Chris Woodhead has been prepared to speak up where standards have not been good enough and the government believes this has contributed to the raising of standards," it said.

Teachers' union leader Nigel de Gruchy said that the government's backing for Mr Woodhead, rather than the findings of the select committee, would "bitterly disappoint" teachers.

"The criticisms of the personal style of the chief inspector ... were severe. In rejecting its recommendations, the government is also snubbing the overwhelming majority view of the teaching profession," said Mr de Gruchy, General Secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers.