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.
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