Blair attacks BBC
The Prime Minister was visibly emotional as he responded to Lord Hutton’s report into the death of Dr David Kelly.
Mr Blair lashed out at the BBC for the allegations made in BBC defence correspondent Andrew Gilligan’s report, in which he claimed that Downing Street “sexed up” a document on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
He described the Hutton report as a “thorough, clear and fair document” and added “we accept it in full”.
Delivering a statement to the Commons this afternoon, the Prime Minister told MPs it was now time for all those who had alleged he, or others involved, had lied or misled Parliament, to withdraw that allegation ‘fully, openly and clearly.’
He also pointed out that the BBC had never retracted its allegations against him or the government.
The Prime Minister welcomed the report’s findings, which largely exonerate him, defence secretary Geoff Hoon, former Downing Street communications chief Alastair Campbell, the intelligence service and the Ministry of Defence.
He said the reports cleared him of accusations of lying and said, had the allegations been true, they would have been very serious, as they would have meant he had misled the house.
The Prime Minister said that the “real lie” had been the claim that the government “sexed up” the Iraqi arms dossier against the wishes of intelligence chiefs.
He said the report had found that the dossier had been published with the full approval of the JIC and that this approval included the 45-minute claim and added that Lord Hutton had found that what Andrew Gilligan had alleged had not been said by Dr Kelly.
The report criticised the BBC allegations regarding the government’s dossier on Iraq as “unfounded” and concluded that there had been no “dishonourable or underhand” plan to divulge Dr Kelly’s name to the press.
Mr Blair paid tribute to Dr Kelly and said that nothing should detract from his fine record of service to this country. He expressed his condolences to the Kelly family and said that he hoped they would now be able to grieve in private.
The Prime Minister said that there had been a need for the inquiry because the BBC’s accusation went to “the heart of government, the intelligence services and me, personally, as Prime Minister”.
The report provided no evidence for claims that his version of events, and that of Sir Kevin Tebbit, were at odds, the Prime Minister said. It also ‘dismisses allegations’ with regard to his conversations with journalists on the way to Hong Kong.
Tory leader Michael Howard said his party also accepted Lord Hutton’s report but called for a second independent inquiry into the circumstances leading up to the war in Iraq.
He paid tribute to Dr Kelly whom he said was a “fine public servant”.
However, Mr Howard attacked defence secretary Geoff Hoon for his role in naming Dr Kelly and compared Mr Blair and a “cabal” of ministers’ behaviour unfavourably with the scientist’s record of public service.
Mr Howard added: “No-one in the government can look back on this episode with pride – the nation will in due course deliver its verdict.”
He also criticised the BBC and claimed that the argument for the corporation to be independently regulated had never been stronger.
Leader of the Liberal Democrats Charles Kennedy responded to the publication of the Hutton Report, stating that it “leaves big questions unanswered, because inevitably they were not addressed”.
“We are still no closer to determining whether this country went to war on a false prospectus. We need an independent inquiry to find out why that happened,” he added.
“I believe the British people, not history, should be able to judge the Prime Minister’s conduct. Only an independent inquiry will enable this”
