Key points: Blair on Kelly naming

Dr David Kelly's body was found at an Oxfordshire beauty spot

Key extracts from Tony Blair's briefing to journalists on 22 July 2003 during a flight to Hong Kong, days after Dr David Kelly's death.

The prime minister is being asked about the leaking of the weapons' expert's name.

Q: In the spirit of openness, talking about ... there, if the Hutton report finds that any members of your staff or your government have acted improperly, will you ensure that they have to resign?

A: [Tony Blair] The important thing is to let the inquiry do its work and make a judgement after the inquiry has done its work.

Q: Why did you authorise the naming of David Kelly?

A: That is completely untrue, and why again, as I say, don't you wait for the inquiry actually to find the facts, because the truth is what we should make judgments on ...

Q: But are you saying ... authorised by your or by any of your staff, or by the Secretary of State for Defence to actually name David Kelly? Is that your starting point going into the inquiry?

A: My starting point going into the inquiry is that I believe that we have acted properly throughout. There are a whole lot of questions that the inquiry will ask and we will answer them. But in reply to what was being said earlier, did I authorise the leaking of David Kelly's name? That is completely untrue ...

Q: Can I just ask you the question that ... asked you, which is did you authorise anyone in Downing Street, or in the MoD, to release David Kelly's name?

A: As I said just a moment or two ago, emphatically not. I did not authorise the leaking of the name of David Kelly.

Q: ... Alastair Campbell in a very awkward position because we know that the Ministry of Defence did confirm the identity of David Kelly.

A: Look, that was a completely different matter once the name was out there ... The inquiry can look at all these things, and it can look across the whole range of these issues, and as I said to you a moment or two ago, I think it is sensible that they are able to do that.