TONY BLAIR has justified Downing Street’s ferocious pursuit of the BBC on the ground that Andrew Gilligan’s allegations were just about “the most serious charge” anyone could level against a Prime Minister.

The BBC has claimed not only that the September dossier was wrong in its assessment of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, but also that Downing Street had overridden the wishes of the intelligence services to insert information which it probably knew to be wrong. The implication is that Mr Blair ordered British troops to invade Iraq in bad faith — on the basis of a lie. The anger that that claim causes inside No 10 should not be underestimated.

Alastair Campbell, who is to leave Downing Street once the inquiry is over, will be expected to answer charges that his part in creating a crisis in relations between the BBC and the Government was a “disproportionate response” Evidence has already been sent to Lord Hutton which Downing Street believes proves that the BBC was wrong. They include a paper trail showing that Alastair Campbell suggested only minor changes to the dossier, none relating to the contested claim that Iraq could deploy WMD within 45 minutes.

The concentration on Mr Gilligan’s specific allegations is probably intended to prevent Lord Hutton’s inquiry widening its scope to include sensitive questions about the use of intelligence in general, the so-called “dodgy dossier”, and the case for war in Iraq.

Officials are working on an assumption that the inquiry will “have no need to see intelligence material”, such as documents and witnesses denied to the Foreign Affairs Committee. No 10’s refusal to allow access to such material was the main reason that a minority of the committee felt that it could not clear Mr Campbell of the BBC’s charges.

Evidence about the role played by the late David Kelly in the dossier, his access to intelligence and how his name became public is being left to the Ministry of Defence to handle. Mr Campbell and other Downing Street aides have denied leaking Dr Kelly’s name to three newspapers, including The Times, on July 9.

There is a tacit recognition that a mistake was made in Whitehall when it was agreed that an elaborate process would be set up through which the media were likely to discover Dr Kelly’s identity. Many of the clues came in official briefings from Downing Street.

A special unit in the Cabinet Office has been set up to provide support for government witnesses to the inquiry. It will also help to handle indemnity and legal representation if necessary.

Mr Blair and Mr Campbell are expected to give evidence, as are Sir David Manning, Mr Blair’s foreign affairs adviser, Jonathan Powell, his chief of staff, Sir Richard Dearlove, head of MI6, and Sir David Omand, Permanent Secretary at the Cabinet Office.

The BBC

THE BBC’s reputation will be on trial at the Hutton inquiry and key executives are rescheduling their summer holidays so that they will be in Britain to fight their corner. The outline of their case is taking shape. It will say that Andrew Gilligan’s account of his meeting with David Kelly is corroborated by a tape-recording and notes made by two other BBC journalists, Susan Watts and Gavin Hewitt.

There have been suggestions that Ms Watts’s tape includes unprompted references to Alastair Campbell’s role in tampering with the dossier. The BBC, which previously said the tape was not particularly revelatory, refuses to confirm those reports. It has dismissed as inconceivable that Dr Kelly would have been made aware of the recording’s existence in the three days between his evidence to the Foreign Affairs Committee and his suicide.

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