The news came in a statement by Mills's solicitor, who said the controversy had imposed a "dreadful strain" on the couple's marriage.

Allies of Jowell said they hoped it would now "draw a line" under the affair as far as she was concerned. But Tory MP Nigel Evans warned yesterday that she would continue to face questions about whether she breached ministerial and parliamentary rules.

The statement from Mills's solicitor said: "This whole business has imposed a dreadful strain on my client and his marriage. He fully accepts responsibility for these pressures and for the situation into which he put his wife, who knows that he is entirely blameless in all of this. He is as mortified as she is angered by the embarrassment he has caused her."

Mills, a corporate lawyer, is facing accusations in Italy that he received a £350,000 bribe in 2000 from prime minister Silvio Berlusconi over evidence he gave in a court case against him, a claim Mills denies. Jowell was dragged into it after it was disclosed she had signed papers for a loan secured on their London home which was paid off with the alleged bribe.

Jowell's secretary dismissed as "cynical spin" suggestions that the announcement that the couple were to split was a "career-saving move".