Blair unrepentant over Birt complaints
Tony Blair today insisted he would not back down on his decision to prohibit one of his special advisers from giving evidence to a parliamentary committee.
The prime minister repeated his argument that Lord Birt, brought in as a “blue skies thinker” to Downing Street’s strategy unit, should not be questioned by the public administration committee.
This weekend the committee of MPs issued a special report expressing its “dissatisfaction” with the “strong resistance” put up by the prime minister’s office in allowing the former BBC director general to give evidence in their inquiry into strategy and policy thinking.
But appearing today before the liaison committee – made up of the chairmen of all the Commons committees – Mr Blair refused to back down, saying he believed acting director of the strategy unit Stephen Aldridge was the best person to give evidence.
“I mean no discourtesy to the committee but I decide who is best to do this and I think Stephen is the best person.he is the most intimately concerned [in this area] and can give you the best information,” he told the committee.
Alan Williams, chairman of the liaison committee, explained that parliament was “supposed to be the focal point of accountability”, yet MPs were not given the same access to ministers and advisers as outside inquiries, such as those by Lords Hutton and Butler.
“Can’t you see that [that] leads possibly to the impression that to have a proper inquiry you have to go outside parliament because the government won’t co-operate?” he asked the prime minister.
Last October, in the wake of the Hutton inquiry, then leader of the Commons Peter Hain made assurance that special advisers would be subject to the same scrutiny as other civil servants.
Mr Williams said it was disappointing that the first breach of the new arrangements was from the prime minister’s office.
Mr Blair replied that “I do try to be as helpful as possible” and noted that the time he spent in front of the committee was more than his predecessors had ever done.
He accepted that they had given “more than we usually would” to Hutton and Butler inquiries, but said he himself was always open to questioning in the House of Commons and by the media.
Queried as to whether this refusal to allow special advisers to give evidence would apply to all select committees, Mr Blair would only say that he would look at it on a “case-by-case basis”.
