Former children's services chief Sharon Shoesmith is considering an appeal after losing her High Court battle against being sacked following the death of Baby P.
A judge upheld a decision of Children's Secretary Ed Balls to remove her from her child safety role with Haringey Council in north London following a damning Ofsted report.
Mr Justice Foskett ruled the highly publicised move by Mr Balls in December 2008 "cannot be impugned on the grounds of unfairness".
The evidence before him was not strong enough to back up claims that Ms Shoesmith, 57, was being used as a scapegoat, and the Ofsted report had been "made to order" on behalf of the minister.
But the judge said he would not disguise the fact that he had reached his conclusions "with a lurking sense of unease".
Ms Shoesmith, who had been earning £130,000 a year, said her career had been ruined by a media witch-hunt, political pressure and a "flagrant breach of the rules of natural justice".
The judge said it was "too simplistic" to suggest Mr Balls had been driven by "party politics" or had been improperly influenced by media pressure.
Lawyers for Ms Shoesmith expressed "disappointment" with the court's decision and said an appeal was now under consideration.
Mr Balls described the killing of Baby P as a "terrible and heinous crime" and said: "It is clear from the judgment that my motivations were the right ones and I acted in a proper way."
The minister commissioned an urgent Ofsted inspection in November 2008, soon after the jailing of those responsible for the death of Baby P, now named as Peter Connelly. Baby P was just 17 months old when he died in August 2007 at the hands of his mother Tracey Connelly, her lover Steven Barker and their lodger, Barker's brother Jason Owen.
