The BBC has denied the director general compromised its independence by visiting Downing Street to discuss coverage of spending cuts.
A spokesman said Mark Thompson had discussed the possible participation of ministers in programmes about the spending review.
He also said the BBC would discuss this issue with all main political parties.
Ed Miliband, one of the Labour leadership candidates, told the Daily Mail the meeting was "deeply worrying".
Mr Thompson had made it repeatedly clear that the impartiality and independence of the BBC were paramount, the corporations spokesman added.
Mr Thompson has been pictured walking into Downing Street holding a memo from the BBCs head of news, describing its new season of programmes about the governments spending review.
Mr Miliband said that Mr Thompson had "a list of programme ideas which appeared to showcase Tory economic policies of savage, indiscriminate cuts".
Labour MP Michael Dugher, once a senior aide to former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, told the Daily Telegraph: "The BBC should be standing up for its independence and should not be bullied by Camerons aides with the threat of cutbacks."
Deputy director general Mark Byford, who is responsible for all the corporations journalism, wrote in a blog on 2 September about the planned coverage that the BBC "has an important role to play to clarify the issues for our audiences - to help them make sense of different ideas and points of view".
"Our aim is to provide insightful, objective programmes and expert analysis to help people understand the context and the potential options," Mr Byford added.
BBC media correspondent Torin Douglas said the director general was quoted on Thursday as saying that 30 years ago, in much of BBC current affairs, there was a "massive bias to the left" in terms of peoples personal politics.
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