TONY BLAIR will today be exonerated of any dishonourable, underhand or duplicitous conduct before the suicide of David Kelly, according to a leak of the Hutton inquiry report last night.

Lord Hutton is also said to clear Alastair Campbell of tampering with intelligence to boost the Government’s case for war.

According to today’s Sun, Lord Hutton reserves his strongest criticism for the BBC for broadcasting an “unfounded” report by Andrew Gilligan that the Iraq weapons dossier was sexed-up with details that the Government probably knew were false.

Gavyn Davies, the BBC Chairman, and Greg Dyke, its Director-General, along with the BBC governors also seem to be criticised for a “defective” editorial system and for failing properly to examine the Government’s complaints about the broadcast on the Radio 4 Today programme.

Dr Kelly, 59, killed himself last July after being named as the source of Mr Gilligan’s broadcast, which accused the Government of misleading the nation on the threat posed by Saddam Hussein.

The contents of the Hutton report were known yesterday only to the official parties to the inquiry and the companies handling printing, security and distribution. But The Sun said that it had learnt “from sources” that Lord Hutton would conclude that it was right for Downing Street to suggest changes to a Joint Intelligence Committee dossier.

The Sun discloses only a small part of the 320-page report and its selection of excerpts will be read by sceptics in the light of its strong support for the Iraq war. The Times will tomorrow print much more substantial extracts and analysis.

According to the leak, the Ministry of Defence was “to be criticised” for not telling Dr Kelly that his name could be confirmed, but it appears to clear the Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon. It adds that the weapons scientist was not “an easy man to help or advise” and concludes that there was no “covert strategy” to leak his name.

Lord Hutton cites a psychiatrist’s evidence that Dr Kelly — who is himself criticised for breaking Civil SErvice rules in talking to Mr Gilligan — took his own life because he had been “publicly disgraced”, his life’s work undermined.

Lord Hutton is reported to criticise Mr Gilligan for failing to put his story to the Ministry of Defence properly before running it on air and calls his allegations “unfounded”. He is said to cast doubt on the reporter’s recollection of his chat with Dr Kelly after losing his notes and typing from memory into his computer.

“In light of the uncertainties arising from Mr Gillian’s evidence and the existence of two versions of his notes, it is not possible to reach a definite conclusion of what Dr Kelly said,” Lord Hutton is reported as saying. “But I am satisfied Dr Kelly did not say the Government probably knew or suspected the 45-minute claim was wrong before the claim was inserted in the dossier.

“The allegation reported by Mr Gilligan that the Government probably knew the claim was wrong or questionable was unfounded.” As a result, Today programme listeners were given a misleading impression.

Lord Hutton reportedly says that Mr Gilligan had no grounds for attacking Mr Campbell. “The allegation by Mr Gilligan that the Government probably knew the 45-minute claim was wrong before putting it in the dossier was unfounded as it would have been understood by those who heard it to mean that the dossier was embellished with intelligence information believed to be false or unreliable.

“The allegation was also unfounded that the 45-minute claim was not in the original draft of the dossier because it only came from one source and that the intelligence agencies did not really believe it was necessarily true.

“The reason the claim did not appear in draft assessments until September 5 2002, was because the intelligence on which it was based was not received by the Secret Intelligence Service until August 29. The JIC assessment staff did bot have time to insert it in the draft until the assessment on September 9.”

The assessment of the controversial claim was made and acted upon by the JIC, “the most senior body in the intelligence services”, the leak quotes from Lord Hutton.

Mr Campbell “told JIC chairman John Scarlett that nothing should be stated in the dossier with which the intelligence community were not entirely happy”, it adds.

“I do not consider it was improper for Mr Scarlett and the JIC to take into account suggestions made by No 10 and adopt those suggestions if they were consistent with the intelligence available,” says the leak.

The Sun also says that the BBC is effectively accused of failing in its duty. Mr Gilligan’s broadcast made “very grave allegations on a subject of great importance” and should have been more carefully vetted, the judge reportedly says. “I consider the editorial system which the BBC permitted was defective,” the judge reportedly states.

He is said to accuse the BBC Head of News, Richard Sambrook, of failing to do his job properly and the corporation’s governors of sloppy decision-making.

“The governors are to be criticised for failing to make a more detailed investigation into whether the allegation by Andrew Gilligan was properly supported by his notes and failing to give proper and adequate consideration to whether the BBC should publicly acknowledge that this very grave allegation should not hae been broadcast.”

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• The bright side of this winter rain
• Story behind the picture: Snow Leopard, 2008
• Times Charity Appeal: The Place2Be