The Sun has paid “substantial damages” to a Muslim couple whom it wrongly alleged were involved in a “Trojan Horse” plot to take over a primary school and enforce a “separatist agenda”.

The paper has apologised to Nasim Ashraf and his wife Hafizan Zaman ovre articles published in 20 February last year, including a column by former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie.

False allegations included that the married couple were involved in a violent plot to take over Clarksfield Primary School in Oldham and that Zaman had “told staff to wear the [Islamic] veil”.