Pizzas galore!

Lord Hutton said that the government dossier had been accepted by the Joint Intelligence Committee and that the intelligence behind the 45-minute claim had come from a reliable source.

The verdict allowed Mr Blair to go back on the offensive, less than 24 hours after being badly wounded when his Commons majority was slashed to just five votes in Tuesday’s Commons revolt on top-up fees.

The Prime Minister demanded an apology from Michael Howard who had implied he had lied over the Government’s treatment of David Kelly.

When the Tory leader refused, Mr Blair retorted that Mr Howard had failed “a test of character”.

REACTION

Mr Blair told MPs: "The report itself is an extraordinarily thorough, detailed and clear document. It leaves no room for doubts or interpretation. We accept it in full."

He added: "The allegation that I or anyone else lied to this House or deliberately misled the country by falsifying intelligence on WMD is itself the real lie."

Mr Blair, in response to a Commons question from Mr Howard, hinted that the review of the BBC’s Charter would look at whether the corporation should have an independent regulator in future, in the light of Lord Hutton’s findings.

Mr Blair said: "There will be a thorough review of the Charter, I think all these issues should be considered in the course of that."

Mr Howard said: "Isn’t there the starkest contrast between David Kelly - the dedicated scientist and weapons inspector who had done so much for our country - and the cabal of ministers and advisers who were so obsessed with their war with the BBC that they gave scant attention to his welfare? No one in Government can look back on this episode with pride. The nation will, in due course, deliver its verdict."

Mr Campbell: "What the report shows very clearly is the Prime Minister told the truth, the government told the truth, I told the truth. The BBC, from the chairman and the director-general down, did not."

Susan Watts, BBC Newsnight journalist who interviewed Dr Kelly before his death: "Evidence from witnesses … suggests that [Dr Kelly] gained the impression, from the questioning before the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, that I had exposed him, either to committee members or to persons called before them. I had not."

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