Tony Blair endures his most difficult monthly press conference

By ANDREW GRICE and BEN RUSSELL

Tony Blair endured his most difficult monthly press conference yesterday as he struggled to explain Clare Short's claim that Britain had spied on the United Nations and the collapse of the case against the GCHQ whistleblower Katherine Gun.

The Prime Minister was holding his 17th press conference at Downing Street.

When he introduced the televised briefings in June 2002, journalists tried hard to catch him out but have failed to do so. In his previous monthly showdowns with the media there have been no gaffes and Mr Blair has taken some delight, after the proceedings have gone on for an hour, in asking his tormentors how long they wanted to carry on.

Yesterday was different. Mr Blair knew that he would face a barrage of questions on the Gun case, which has reopened the controversy over the legal case for the Iraq war.

What he had not reckoned on was Ms Short's spectacular allegation being made on BBC Radio 4 just four hours before his press conference. It was too late to call off the event, which would have looked even worse.

An uncomfortable-looking Mr Blair tried to launch a carefully- planned initiative to help Africa, which might normally have captured the headlines. But he admitted at the outset that the reporters would soon be on the attack over both the Short affair and the Gun case.

The Prime Minister barely concealed his fury as he condemned Ms Short's remarks as "deeply irresponsible" and accused her of threatening the essential security of Britain by attacking the security services.

"It is wrong and it should not happen. It is as simple as that," he said.

He stopped short of issuing a full denial of Ms Short's claim on the grounds that governments did not comment on the work of the intelligence services. But he insisted that this should not be taken as an indication that the allegation was true.

"Our security services, particularly today, particularly with global terrorism as it is, perform an absolutely vital task on behalf of this country," said Mr Blair.

"Many of their people work in circumstances of very great danger and it really is the height of irresponsibility to expose them to this type of public questioning and scrutiny in a way that can do absolutely no good to the security of this country."

Mr Blair was challenged on Ms Short's claims from the first question at the press conference, which lasted well over an hour.

The tension was eased with laughter only as Patrick O'Flynn, political editor of the Daily Express, asked Mr Blair: "Prime Minister, you have branded Clare Short today as totally irresponsible and entirely consistent. Have you just woken up to the nature of Clare Short who you have known for a long time, and what does it say about your own judgement that you could allow someone like that to sit in the Cabinet and be privy to all this information for so long?"

Mr Blair tried his best to stonewall the persistent questioning on the spying allegations.

He insisted: "I'm not going to comment on the work that the security services do. No prime minister has done that, I'm not going to comment on it. Do not take that as an indication that the allegations made by Clare Short this morning are true. Simply understand I'm not going to comment on the operations of our security services.

"But I am going to say this: We act in accordance with domestic and international law and we act in the best interests of this country and our security services are a vital part of the protection of this country, so I'm not going to comment on their operations, not directly, not indirectly ... I think the fact that those allegations were made is deeply irresponsible."

He said: "I think you know, I cannot get into details about any operations or start confirming or denying particular allegations. It's precisely because people know that that it is so irresponsible and so actually threatening to the proper security of this country for people to begin that debate."

The Prime Minister was repeatedly challenged to confirm or deny Ms Short's allegations and pressed about her future as an MP.

Asked whether Clare Short should be prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act, he said: "I can assure you I don't deal with who is prosecuted and who is not prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act. I will say, however, that I really do regard what Clare Short has said this morning as totally irresponsible and entirely consistent."

Mr Blair was asked whether he had only just woken up to Ms Short's character. Mr Blair said: "That is a good question. To be fair she did a good job as International Development Secretary and I'm sorry that she has said the things that she has said this morning. But she must know and everyone must know that you can't have a situation where people start making allegations like this about our security services, it's completely irresponsible, she knows that."

He was also asked whether Ms Short could continue as a Labour MP. He said: "These are issues that I will have to reflect upon, but as I say this has happened this morning and there will obviously be issues that arise.

He insisted that it would be wrong to discuss the workings of Britain's intelligence services. He said: "To do so would put at risk the security of this country and I will simply not let that happen.

"And whether intentionally or not, those who do attack the work that our security services are doing undermine the essential security of this country.

"It is wrong and it should not happen. It is as simple as that."

Repeatedly pressed on the collapse of the case against former GCHQ worker Katherine Gun, Mr Blair insisted that he was not responsible for the decision to prosecute. Mr Blair insisted that the case was not dropped because of concerns about the Attorney General's advice on the legality of the Iraqi war being scrutinised in court.

He said: "My understanding is that it is absolutely nothing whatever to do with that ... "It seems to me pretty obvious that it was to do with the interplay between evidential issues and the legal framework.

"But it isn't to do with some issue to do with the publication of his legal advice."

Mr Blair said: "Large parts of the public out there will be saying what on earth are we doing having a situation where people are talking openly about the work of our security services in a situation where this country is, as other countries are, under the threat of terrorism, and when we have just been through an immensely difficult international situation in which our troops are engaged in conflict. Well I'm with them."

Mr Blair said the Attorney General spoke to Foreign Secretary Jack Straw before the case was dropped against Mrs Gun.

"I think he did speak to the Foreign Secretary about it, because the Foreign Secretary is the minister who has got responsibility for GCHQ," he said.

"But the Foreign Secretary did not, like I didn't, play any role in the discontinuance of the prosecution."

He refused to comment on suggestions that the Attorney General had counselled against the legality of war throughout 2002 and only gave legal justification in January 2003.

"I'm not getting into giving a running commentary on all the discussions with the Attorney General throughout the period," he said.

"What I am saying to you is there was never any question of us being able to go to war without the Attorney General's advice being clear.

"That advice was clear. It was clear throughout and we acted upon it."


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