TONY BLAIR chaired the key meeting at which a question-and-answer strategy leading to the naming of Dr David Kelly was agreed, the top civil servant at the Ministry of Defence said yesterday.

Sir Kevin Tebbit, Permanent Secretary at the MoD, said that the meeting at Downing Street on July 8 had agreed a change of stance in handling the case of the expert in weapons of mass destruction. Nine days later Dr Kelly apparently took his own life.

Sir Kevin was appearing at the Hutton inquiry, which was reopened for one day yesterday because an eye operation had prevented him from returning for cross-examination last month.

Under questioning by Jeremy Gompertz, QC, for the Kelly family, Sir Kevin said that the July 8 meeting had agreed a new question-andanswer brief for the MoD press office which would confirm the identity of Dr Kelly if journalists came up with the right name.

The brief was drawn up to deal with journalists’ questions once the MoD had published a press statement about Dr Kelly later that same day. Sir Kevin said that it was the Government, not the MoD, which had felt the need to put out the statement.

Mr Gompertz said that there was a “considerable change of stance” between the earlier versions of the question-and-answer brief, which noted that there was “nothing to be gained by naming the individual”, and the later version, which would identify Dr Kelly if the name was guessed by journalists.

Sir Kevin replied: “The change of stance, as you put it, was as a result of the meeting chaired by the Prime Minister.”

Asked whether the decision for the later version of the brief was taken by Number 10 or by the MoD, Sir Kevin replied: “The decision was taken at the meeting in Number 10 with which the MoD concurred.”

The MoD announced that an unidentified official had admitted talking to Andrew Gilligan, the BBC reporter whose broadcast on May 29 about the Government allegedly “sexing up” its Iraq dossier had provoked a huge row between Number 10 and the corporation.

It was the first time at the Hutton inquiry that a senior official had acknowledged that the July 8 meeting at Number 10 had discussed and approved the process under which a revised question-and-answer brief would authorise the MoD press office to tell journalists it would be in a position to confirm the identity of the official if they produced the right name. Sir Kevin said: “A policy decision on the handling of this matter (statement on Dr Kelly) had not been taken until the Prime Minister’s meeting on the Tuesday (July 8). And it was only after that that any of the press people (in the MoD) had an authoritative basis on which to proceed.”

Sir Kevin described the meeting at Number 10 on July 8 as the “decisive meeting”.

Michael Ancram, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, claimed Sir Kevin’s evidence was “yet another damning indictment of Mr Blair’s role in the naming of Dr Kelly”.

The Prime Minister, he said, had previously claimed he was not involved in any naming strategy, but Sir Kevin’s evidence showed this to be a “sham”.

However, Sir Kevin denied that the question-and-answer brief was designed to bring out Dr Kelly’s name. There was no “devious strategy”, he said. He told the inquiry that there had been concerns about the wrong name being published.

Lord Hutton announced at yesterday’s hearing that he might not be able to produce his report until the New Year because of the huge amount of oral and written evidence.

The countdown to tragedy

June 30 David Kelly writes to Bryan Wells, his line manager, to admit meeting Mr Gilligan

July 4 Meeting of Dr Kelly, Dr Wells and Richard Hatfield, MoD personnel director

July 4 Meeting at Downing Street. Tony Blair says that normal MoD procedures should be followed

July 7 Meeting at Downing Street attended by Prime Minister and senior officials to discuss Foreign Affairs Select Committee report

July 8 Series of meetings at Downing Street with Mr Blair, Sir David Omand, John Scarlett, Alastair Campbell and others

13.30 pm Mr Blair chairs meeting with Mr Scarlett, Mr Campbell, Godric Smith, Tom Kelly and Jonathan Powell

5pm Press statement saying that an official had come forward published. Q&A with further details prepared

July 9 Three newspapers obtain Dr Kelly’s name, which is confirmed by the MoD

July 18 Dr Kelly found dead

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