Iraq inquiry quizzes Alastair Campbell
Updated on 12 January 2010
Former Downing Street press chief Alastair Campbell will become the first of Tony Blair's inner circle to give evidence to the Iraq inquiry this morning.
The former spin doctor will be questioned in relation to his time as director of communications and strategy to the prime minister between 2001-2003.
Campbell became a controversial figure over his role in presenting the case for going to war, following allegations by the BBC that the government had “sexed up” a key intelligence dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
The dossier, published in September 2002, contained the now-infamous claim that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction that could be ready to use in 45 minutes.
But at the end of May 2003, BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan said in an early morning live broadcast that the government had put the 45-minute claim into the dossier, despite knowing it was probably wrong.
A bitter row escalated between Campbell and the BBC, which at one point saw the press chief striding into the Channel 4 News studio unannounced to make his case.
Campbell first made an angry appearance before the foreign affairs select committee on 25 June 2003, who questioned him about allegations the dossier was sexed up.
"I find it incredible that people can report, based on one single, anonymous, uncorroborated source ... that the prime minister, the cabinet, the intelligence agencies, people like myself, connived to persuade Parliament to send British forces into action on a lie," Campbell said.
"Until the BBC acknowledges that's a lie, I will keep banging on and that correspondent's file will get thicker," he said, banging his hand on the table for emphasis.
Two days later, Campbell turned up in the Channel 4 News studio unannounced and denied that he had a vendetta against Andrew Gilligan, saying he had “never met the guy”.
“In contrast to the BBC, I have acknowledged we made a mistake,” he said, referring to evidence in a second dossier found to have been lifted from the internet.
“I have apologised on behalf of the government. Now the BBC should acknowledge they've made a mistake and they should apologise to the government, then we can move on.”
In July 2003 government weapons inspector Dr David Kelly, who had recently been outed as the source for the 45-minute claim in Gilligan's report, killed himself.
Campbell was called twice to appear before the Hutton inquiry into Kelly's death, and again denied sexing up the dossier.
"I said, the drier the better. Cut the rhetoric ... I thought there were areas where the language was too colourful. And I also said the more intelligence-based it was, the better."
Campbell was eventually exonerated by Hutton's report, which concluded he had been clear that nothing should be inserted into the dossier against the wishes of the joint intelligence committee.
He had earlier been forced to apologise after chunks of a second, so-called “dodgy dossier” published in February 2003 were revealed by Channel 4 News to be lifted from a PhD thesis on the internet.
In June 2003, Campbell wrote to reassure intelligence chiefs that “far greater care would be taken in dealing with anything that might impact on their reputation or their work".
Campbell quit as Tony Blair's press chief during the Hutton inquiry at the end of August 2003, saying his family had paid a high price for the real and intense" pressures of his job and it was "time to move on and do other things".
Campbell will be the first member of Blair's inner circle to appear before Sir John Chilcot's committee as the inquiry enters its second phase.
The former prime minister, Tony Blair, will give evidence in a full-day session at some point in the fortnight starting 25 January.
Rags Martel reports.
