Kelly backlash corners Hoon

By BEN RUSSELL in London

Geoff Hoon, the British Secretary of State for Defence, was under increasing pressure yesterday to explain his role in events leading up to the death of Dr David Kelly.

Hoon's role at the head of the department which employed and named Dr Kelly as the suspected source of BBC reports that the Government exaggerated the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction is likely to form a central part of Lord Hutton's inquiry into the affair.

The former lawyer and law lecturer turned ultra-loyal Blairite cabinet minister was accused of misleading the public after claiming that he had not leaked Kelly's name to the media.

He faced questions about whether he acted properly in exposing the mild-mannered weapons expert to the intense scrutiny of the press and Parliament.

There were also concerns over whether senior officials in Hoon's ministry exerted undue pressure, such as threats to his pension arrangements, on Kelly after he admitted meeting Gilligan.

At the weekend, after Kelly's body was discovered, an unapologetic Hoon told the BBC: "I don't believe that I have done anything that requires me to apologise."

Asked if he released the scientist's name, Hoon said: "I certainly can only speak on my behalf and I can assure you it was not my responsibility."

However, his claim that the department "made great efforts" to maintain Kelly's anonymity was challenged as Pam Teare, director of news at the MoD, admitted: "We made it clear to media callers and to Kelly that if someone put the right name to us we would be obliged to confirm it, end of story."

The senior source for the report remained a mystery until July 8, when Richard Sambrook, the BBC's head of news, was asked to meet Hoon, the Defence Secretary, to discuss something "important" about the row between the BBC and the Government.

Within hours, the Ministry of Defence put out a 367-word release disclosing that a ministry employee had come forward to admit that he met Gilligan on May 22 and could be the source for his story.

The statement, in news bulletins the day after the Foreign Affairs Select Committee produced its report, did not name Kelly.

It said the official was a weapons of mass destruction expert "who has advised ministers on WMD and whose contribution to the Dossier of September 2002 was to contribute towards drafts of historical accounts of United Nations inspections".

The MoD would name the employee "in confidence" to the chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee, which is conducting a private inquiry into the use of intelligence in the run-up to war.

The next day, on July 9, Hoon wrote in confidence to BBC chairman Gavyn Davis, naming Kelly as the likely source of Gilligan's report, and asking the corporation to confirm or deny the name.

Inside the MoD, however, Hoon apparently played a key role in bringing Kelly into the open after it was claimed that a meeting attended by Hoon and Sir Kevin Tebbit, permanent secretary at the MoD, concluded press officers should confirm Kelly's name if journalists put his name to them.

That afternoon, journalists from the Times, Financial Times and the Guardian asked whether Kelly was the unnamed official. Senior press officers confirmed the name.

The publication of Kelly's name made it inevitable that Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Donald Anderson would ask for the scientist to give public evidence to his committee, and by July 11 a date for the now fateful meeting had been set.

- INDEPENDENT

British Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee transcript:

Evidence of Dr David Kelly

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