British government ministers and BBC bosses are facing a public grilling on theirtreatment of Dr David Kelly, after the law lord appointed to investigate thecivil servant's death announced today he would not hold his inquiry behindclosed doors.
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Lord Hutton
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Lord Hutton asserted the independence of his inquiry with a declaration thathe would decide the scope of his questions and the choice of witnesses "as Isee fit within my terms of reference".
He promised to hold his investigation into the government weapons expert'sapparent suicide "mostly in public" and to publish a report "as soon aspossible".
British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair immediately confirmed his readiness to give evidencein public, and to break off from a family holiday in Barbados to do so ifnecessary.
Downing Street made clear it expected Lord Hutton to stick closely to theterms set by Mr Blair - "urgently to conduct an investigation into thecircumstances surrounding the death of Dr Kelly".
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But opponents of the war said that his death could not be explained withoutreference to the government's handling of intelligence information in the run-upto the conflict.
Dr Kelly's body was found in woodland near his Oxfordshire home on Friday,three days after he gave evidence to a parliamentary inquiry. A coroner's courtthis morning heard he died the previous day due to loss of blood from a cut tohis left wrist.
The BBC yesterday confirmed that he was the main source for a controversialMay 29th report by reporter Andrew Gilligan, alleging the Government hadexaggerated intelligence evidence on Saddam Hussein's weapons of massdestruction.
Mr Gilligan said his source had informed him that members of the intelligencecommunity were unhappy about the inclusion in a Government dossier lastSeptember of claims that Saddam could launch WMD within 45 minutes.
In a statement on his plans for the conduct of the inquiry, Lord Hutton said:"It will be for me to decide as I think right within my terms of reference thematters which will be the subject of my investigation.
"I intend to sit in public in the near future to state how I intend toconduct the inquiry and to consider the extent to which interested parties andbodies should be represented by counsel or solicitors. In deciding on the datewhen I will sit I will obviously wish to take into account the date of DrKelly's funeral and the timing of the inquest into his death."
Liberal Democrat leader Mr Charles Kennedy said: "Clearly, in getting to thebottom of this tragedy, Lord Hutton will have to touch on some of the wideraspects of the case the government made for going to war, the veracity ofintelligence information, the use the government made of that information andany role that Downing Street and the Ministry of Defence may have played in DrKelly's name being made public."
He warned that "all hell will break loose" if the government sought toimpede any line of inquiry Lord Hutton chose to pursue or to deny him access tointelligence officers and secret papers.
Former cabinet minister Mr Robin Cook said it would be difficult to conduct athorough investigation without probing "some of the prior issues about which(Dr Kelly) was talking to Andrew Gilligan".
He said: "It is impossible, surely, to consider that conversation withoutconsidering the content, in which Dr Kelly appears... to have expressed somedoubt about the claims of the September dossier."
Downing Street said it would be for Lord Hutton to decide whether keypotential witnesses like Mr Blair, director of communications Mr Alastair Campbelland Defence Secretary Mr Geoff Hoon should be questioned in public.
"It's up to Lord Hutton to decide who he wants to talk to, when he wants totalk to them and in what conditions he wants to talk to them," said the PrimeMinister's official spokesman.
He indicated that the inquiry's remit was tightly focused on the Kellyaffair.
PA