Focus on Kelly naming debate

By Torin Douglas BBC media correspondent

The Hutton inquiry heard more on Wednesday about discussions at the very top of government over whether or not to reveal that Dr David Kelly had emerged as the possible source of the BBC's story about the Iraq weapons dossier.

Three top officials - the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Defence, Sir Kevin Tebbit, and the prime minister's two official spokesmen, Godric Smith and Tom Kelly - described their roles in the process that led to Dr Kelly being named by newspapers and made to give evidence in public to MPs on the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Sir Kevin admitted MoD staff often spoke to the media

Sir Kevin defended his department's actions in the days after Dr Kelly wrote a letter to his bosses, admitting he'd met the BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan in a London hotel.

Dr Kelly had said he did not believe he was the source of the story but had been encouraged to come forward after a friend at the Royal United Services Institute told him that the views attributed to the BBC's source appeared to coincide with his own.

Sir Kevin admitted the Ministry of Defence had a reputation for being leaky and said Mr Gilligan was known to have many contacts there, both authorised and unauthorised.

He said he believed that once Dr Kelly had come forward it was inevitable his name would come out, particularly after an article in The Times gave further details of the supposed source.

He'd even heard from a commodore that Dr Kelly's meeting with Mr Gilligan had been discussed at a cocktail party on the Tattersall Castle, a boat on the river Thames.

'Complex'

Sir Kevin and the prime minister's spokesmen all described top level discussions in Downing Street over whether or not to put out a press release announcing that an official had come forward.

Sir Kevin said the defence secretary Geoff Hoon had been keen to get the news out because Dr Kelly was seen as the key to refuting the BBC's allegations.

The men responsible for protecting Blair's image were under scrutiny

It later emerged that Alastair Campbell, the prime minister's director of communications, had suggested giving the information to one newspaper, without naming Dr Kelly.

Godric Smith told the inquiry he'd heard Mr Campbell speaking to Mr Hoon on the phone, floating the idea of leaking the story.

But Mr Smith and the other official No 10 spokesman, Tom Kelly, both said they'd thought this was a bad idea and had dissuaded Mr Campbell.

Mr Smith said it had seemed "somewhat complex" for the story to appear in one newspaper and then be confirmed by the Ministry of Defence. A press release was later issued instead.

'Game of chicken'

Sir Kevin was asked about a question and answer sheet his department had prepared to respond to journalists trying to identify the official who'd come forward.

Didn't that give clues to his identity? Sir Kevin said they were not intended to be clues.

But press officers had been authorised to confirm whether or not names put to them were correct.

Later Mr Kelly was asked about his remark that the row between the government and the BBC had been "a game of chicken".

He said he'd made it in an e-mail to a close colleague and, taken out of context, it was not the language he would normally use.

He insisted he did not see it as a game. Asked whether this, or his earlier suggestion that Dr Kelly was a "Walter Mitty figure", reflected "the mindset in No 10", Mr Kelly said they did not.

He'd not expected that remark to be published at all and he'd apologised unreservedly to Dr Kelly's family for intruding into their grief.