Hoon defends Kelly treatment

Many commentators believe Geoff Hoon's career is on the line

Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon has said he still believes the government did nothing wrong in the run-up to the death of government scientist Dr David Kelly.

In highly-charged exchanges with the Kelly family's barrister at the Hutton inquiry into the scientist's death, Mr Hoon defended the Ministry of Defence's handling of the affair.

The under-fire minister was followed into the witness box by Downing Street media chief Alastair Campbell who said he regretted the manner of his finger-jabbing live television interview about the Iraq weapons row - but stood by the substance of what he said.

THIS WEEK'S WITNESSES Monday: Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon; Downing Street's outgoing press chief Alastair Campbell Tuesday: Downing Street spokesmen Tom Kelly and Godric Smith; Joint Intelligence Committee chairman John Scarlett; Thames Valley Police Assistant Chief Constable Michael Page; BBC Chairman Gavyn Davies Wednesday: Foreign Office official Patrick Lamb; Dr Kelly's MoD line manager Bryan Wells; MoD officials Wing Commander John Clark and James Harrison Hutton inquiry: Have your say

Mr Hoon said that in hindsight, decisions "could have been taken slightly differently", but that would not have had "any material effect".

Dr Kelly apparently committed suicide after being named as the suspected source for the BBC report on claims that Number 10 "sexed up" intelligence in its Iraq weapons dossier.

Mr Hoon said he had authorised the press statement which led to Dr Kelly being named as the suspected source.

He still thought it had been right to put out the press release, which said an unnamed official had admitted meeting BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan.

"We did not have the option of doing nothing," said Mr Hoon.

Mr Hoon, widely seen as the most likely casualty of the inquiry, said he had also known MoD press officers would confirm Dr Kelly's name if it was put to them.

The ministry's top civil servant, Sir Kevin Tebbit had told him he did not want individual press officers to "be seen to be lying to journalists", he said.

It was better to acknowledge the name if put, Sir Kevin had said, explaining he did not want the wrong officials being approached by journalists.

'No conspiracy'

Mr Hoon said he understood the confirmation strategy had been agreed the night before his meeting with Sir Kevin on 9 July - and the civil servant was checking he agreed with the plan.

He had always thought Dr Kelly's name would become public. And he said he had asked his officials to report to him on the scientist's welfare.

"I certainly think that every reasonable step was taken to ensure that Dr Kelly was properly supported," said Mr Hoon.

I cannot see in any way that Dr Kelly was poorly treated in the process inside the MoD Geoff Hoon Analysis: Hoon's first appearance Profile: Geoff Hoon

There have been suggestions Mr Hoon has given inaccurate evidence to the inquiry but he highlighted parts of his unpublished written statement to Lord Hutton detailing his discussions with Sir Kevin.

As tensions rose in the courtroom, Kelly family QC Jeremy Gompertz suggested the government had deliberately tried to leak Dr Kelly's name.

Mr Hoon said there was "not the slightest shred of evidence" for that charge and insisted efforts had been made to protect the scientist's anonymity.

He told Lord Hutton that Mr Gompertz was suggesting there was some sort of conspiracy right across government, but "there was no such conspiracy".

And he had not known about details Number 10 were putting out about Dr Kelly.

MPs' questions

The minister also defended his decision, taken against Sir Kevin's advice, to let the scientist be questioned in public by the Commons foreign affairs committee.

I had no input, output, influence upon [the dossiers] whatsoever at any stage Alastair Campbell Campbell defends dossier role Profile: Alastair Campbell

BBC barrister Andrew Caldecott QC asked Mr Hoon about the government's Iraq dossier last September.

Mr Hoon accepted newspapers had exaggerated the dossier's claims about Iraq being able to deploy weapons within 45 minutes.

He did not know why the government had not tried to put out a statement correcting such false impressions, saying it was not his duty to correct such reports.

Mr Campbell is being pressed by the BBC's barrister about whether Downing Street interfered with the drafting of the intelligence dossier.

He said he had made suggestions on the presentational side of things, but he did not think his comments would have affected the objectivity of John Scarlett and his Joint Intelligence Committee, who had control of the dossier's preparation.

Mr Campbell announced he was quitting as Prime Minister Tony Blair's director of communications 10 days after he first appeared before the inquiry.

The Hutton inquiry is due to end on Thursday. Its findings are expected to be published some time after October.