PUBLIC support for the war in Iraq and trust in Tony Blair have fallen sharply over the past month with the killing of British and American troops and the row over the Government’s dossier on Saddam Hussein’s weapons, an opinion poll for The Times finds today.

The Populus survey found that more than half of voters would not trust the Prime Minister further than they could throw him and that people no longer regard him as more honest than most politicians. Both Iain Duncan Smith and Charles Kennedy were rated more highly on trust and honesty.

There is also a striking drop in the number of people who believe that it was right to go to war — from a peak of 64 per cent in April, 58 per cent last month to 47 per cent now. The number saying it was wrong has risen sharply to 45 per cent, from 34 per cent last month and 24 per cent in April.

The findings will add to the pressure on Mr Blair as he prepares to appear before MPs today to defend his handling of pre-war Iraqi intelligence. Yesterday the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee found that a government dossier on Iraq last September gave “undue prominence” to the claim that Saddam could launch chemical or biological weapons at 45 minutes’ notice. It also concluded that Mr Blair “inadvertently” misrepresented a second report — the so-called dodgy dossier — in February.

It did clear Alastair Campbell, the Downing Street communications director, of calling for the September report to be embellished — but only on the casting vote of the Labour chairman, and the row between No 10 and the BBC over its claim that Mr Campbell had asked for the dossier to be “sexed up” continued unabated.

Mr Campbell said that his demand for an apology stood and the BBC made plain that it had no intention of giving one.

There were hints in government and BBC circles last night that the source of the “sexing up” report was close to being unmasked and The Times has been told by a senior government insider that he is thought to be a London-based Foreign Office official who is not a member of the intelligence agencies.

BBC sources have said privately that the debate would be transformed if the source were named, but government insiders say that there are fears within the corporation that its case would be weakened if he were unmasked. One said: “If the name of this guy comes out, it will show what a lot of nonsense this has been.”

Both sides of the argument seized on parts of yesterday’s select committee report to claim victory. Downing Street officials demanded that the BBC should “set the record straight” by acknowledging that it had been wrong, while the BBC claimed that its decision to broadcast its allegations had been vindicated.

Mr Campbell said: “It goes without saying that our demand for an apology still stands. The evidence is so overwhelming that the BBC story was wrong that we should not even have to ask. Also, the reality is that nobody can force them to.” Mr Blair, who is exasperated by the amount of time ministers and officials have spent countering the BBC story, will also repeat the demand that the BBC should admit that it was wrong when he appears before the Commons Liaison Committee of select committee chairmen this morning.

But the corporation said: “The BBC believes today’s report from the foreign affairs committee justifies its decision to broadcast the Today programme story of May 29 and the Newsnight story of June 2 and shows that both were in the public interest.

“In particular, we believe the decision to highlight the circumstances surrounding the 45-minute claim has been vindicated. It is because of BBC journalism that the problems surrounding the 45-minute claim have come to light and been given proper public attention.”

Mr Duncan Smith meanwhile seized on the committee’s conclusions on the February dossier to ask Mr Blair to apologise for misleading the Commons. He said the Prime Minister should correct the record in accordance with the ministerial code which states that it is of “paramount importance” that ministers correct “any inadvertent error at the earliest opportunity”.

He said: “You must outline specifically why such a serious mistake occurred and deal appropriately with those responsible for the final compilation and publication of the dossier.”

Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrats’ foreign affairs spokesman, said the case for an independent inquiry into the Government’s use of pre-war intelligence was overwhelming: “We still do not know whether the intelligence, upon which major decisions were taken, was flawed. It is time we found out.”

The picture was further confused when Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, published his first report on the “lessons learnt” from the Iraq conflict.

It said that while coalition commanders had believed the Iraqis may have been willing to use weapons of mass destruction, it was unclear whether they were actually able to deploy them. “It was judged that the regime might use theatre ballistic missiles and possibly weapons of mass destruction if it could make the capabilities available for operational use and secure the obedience of subordinate commanders,” the report said.

• Populus — which found that Labour still had a small lead over the Conservatives with 36 per cent support to the Tories’ 34 and the Liberal Democrats’ 21 — interviewed a random sample of 1,000 adults by telephone between July 4 and 6. Interviews were conducted across the country and the results weighted to be representative of all adults.

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