Posted on 28-1-2003

Hutton 'clears Blair'

The Sun newspaper has tonight claimed to have a leak of the Hutton report. The paper says Tony Blair has been cleared of wrongdoing but that the BBC and the governors have been criticised for not investigating the veracity of the Andrew Gilligan report that sparked the row between the corporation and the government.
But the slant the Sun has taken is already being treated with some scepticism - Lord Hutton demanded that everyone who received an early copy of his report sign an undertaking not to disclose its contents and there is suspicion that the tabloid may have got its leak from a source sympathetic to the government.

Blair's spokesman said tonight: "We categorically deny that anyone who is authorised by government to see this document has either shown it to or spoken about it to anyone else."

Sun political editor, Trevor Kavanagh, denied that the Sun was being used for political ends. He told Newsnight that the source had 'no axe to grind and nothing to be gained financially or politically'.

But the Conservatives called for an immediate investigation.

The Sun has supported the Labour party throughout the Kelly affair and it appears that it has not the seen the full report, but has only had part of the conclusions read to it.

The paper's front page story claims the prime minister will not be blamed for the 'naming strategy' that led to the public identification of Dr Kelly as the 'mole' who had an unauthorised meeting with Gilligan.

According to the Sun, the BBC has also been criticised for not making more rigorous checks to establish the truth of Gilligan's central claim that the government had knowingly 'sexed up' the Iraq dossier that made the case for war.

The leaked Sun will come as a shock to Lord Hutton whose inquiry into the death of Dr Kelly exposed the dark art of spin and counter-spin at senior government levels.

For this reason he was determined there would be no leaks of his report and had hoped the first public statement would be his press conference at 12.30pm tomorrow, Wednesday.

The row between the BBC and the government was sparked by Gilligan's report on Radio 4's Today programme on May 29.