Care Quality Commission media manager Anna Jefferson says she wanted to speak out after being implicated in an alleged cover-up of the organisation's failure to investigate baby deaths in Cumbria.
The health watchdog has revealed its ex-chief executive Cynthia Bower, her former deputy Jill Finney and Ms Jefferson were present during a discussion about deleting an internal review which criticised CQC inspections of University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust, where a number of mothers and babies had died.
The three women deny that they tried to cover up the report and Ms Bower insists she "gave no instruction to delete" the report.
Since their names were revealed, Ms Bower has resigned from her current post as a non-executive trustee of the Skills for Health lobbying body, while Ms Finney has been sacked as chief commercial officer of internet domain company Nominet.
More than 30 families have taken action against Furness General - run by Morecambe Bay NHS Trust - in relation to deaths and injuries to mothers and babies since 2008.
It is claimed Ms Jefferson, who still works for the CQC, said during the key meeting, "Are you kidding me? This can never be in the public domain nor subject to FOI (a Freedom of Information request)."
Anna Jefferson denies suggesting the CQC review should be suppressed But Ms Jefferson told Sky News she "felt sick" and wanted to waive her anonymity when she realised she was implicated in a review by City consultants Grant Thornton, which was published on Wednesday.
She said she does not remember any instruction to delete the review being given and denies suggesting it could never be made public.
She claimed she pushed for proper external scrutiny of the CQC's actions regarding Morecambe Bay "several times", the last time on July 17, 2012, during a meeting where the CQC's current chief executive David Behan was present.
She said: "The thought of what the families who have lost babies at this hospital have gone through is heartbreaking.
The Health Secretary said those behind any "cover-up" could lose pensions "I would never have conspired to cover up anything which could have led to a better understanding of what went wrong in the regulation of this hospital and I am absolutely devastated that I have been implicated in this way."
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has suggested that current or former CQC staff found to have been involved in a cover-up could be stripped of their pensions.
He said the CQC must follow "due process" but he would back the regulator "absolutely to the hilt" if it chose to take action against individuals.
Asked what action should be taken against those responsible, Mr Hunt told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "These are very, very serious allegations and they should have very, very serious consequences if they are proved.
Joshua Titcombe's family raised concerns after he died at Furness Hospital "I know the CQC are looking into disciplinary procedures and what can be done, what sanctions are available, whether you can have forfeiture of pensions, all those things.
"There has to be due process, but... it is totally appalling that this kind of thing should happen. It's exactly what shouldn't be happening in our NHS.
"It lets down the millions of doctors and nurses who do an amazing job day in, day out, and we have to root it out."
Downing Street said Prime Minister David Cameron agreed that all sanctions should be on the table.
Meanwhile, Mr Behan and current CQC chairman David Prior are to be summoned to appear before the Commons health select committee.
Its chairman, Tory former health secretary Stephen Dorrell, said he has asked for them to be given an "early opportunity" to give evidence.
Morecambe Bay NHS Trust was given a clean bill of health by the CQC in 2010, but an internal review was ordered by the hospital regulator in 2011 into how failings resulting in deaths had gone unnoticed.
Grant Thornton's investigation found that the report was not made public because it was decided it was too critical of the CQC.
The investigators concluded this "might well have constituted a deliberate cover-up" by the CQC employees who decided it should not be made public.
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