It comes at a bad time for the News International title, which is still recovering from the outing of its top reporter Mahzer Mahmood, otherwise known as the Fake Sheikh, by George Galloway after a failed undercover sting. Yesterday it was forced to pay footballer Wayne Rooney damages of 100,000 over a story that falsely alleged he had slapped his fiance, Coleen McLoughlin.

The News of the World was not the only Sunday newspaper to see a dramatic fall The People dropped by 4% to 849,123 copies, and the Independent on Sunday was down by 4.5% to 233,193 copies.

Its sister daily newspaper The Independent fared no better, circulation slid from 266,075 in February to 255,849 in March, a decline of 3.8% according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

It was the worst performer among the quality national newspapers, in a month that saw relatively steady circulation levels as a number of relaunched and redesigned newspapers bedded down.

Only the Financial Times reported a rise, increasing circulation by 1.2% to 445,986 copies.

Circulation levels were also relatively steady for the tabloids, with only the Daily Express, continuing its policy of running regular front-page stories about Princess Diana, showing a rise. Its circulation was up 0.5% to 831,923.