The Bishop of Southwark is to go to the Press Complaints Commission after a report in the Times claimed he was drunk after a Christmas party.

The newspaper said a leaked Church of England document confirmed the Right Reverend Tom Butler was inebriated when he left a bash at the Irish Embassy.

But Lambeth Palace, which took "no further action" after a full investigation into the incident, said the preliminary report was based entirely upon a complainant's account.

Dr Butler suffered head injuries and lost his phone and briefcase on his way home to Tooting Bec Gardens after the party in December.

He said he remembered nothing after leaving the embassy in Hyde Park Corner and thought he had been mugged near his home in Streatham.

A spokesman for the Diocese of Southwark said: "This document was a preliminary report written by Judge Rupert Bursell acting as deputy to the Archbishop's Registar.

"He was not sitting as a judge and the document is not a judgement. It was written prior to any evidence being presented on behalf of the bishop.

"Following this, a thorough process of investigation was conducted by Lambeth Palace under the Clergy Discipline Measure and having examined all the evidence the archbishop concluded that he would be taking no further action.

"The evidence submitted included medical evidence stating that the bishop's amnesia is certainly entirely explicable on the basis of his head injuries'."