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The prime minister still does not know if he will win Tuesday's vote Tony Blair is entering the toughest 48 hours of his premiership as MPs prepare to vote on university top-up fees and publication of the Hutton report nears. The prime minister spoke to Labour MPs on Monday and, it was claimed, won over some waverers for the fees vote. However, further concessions have been ruled out and Downing Street said the numbers were still "too close to call". Hours beforehand ministers get their copies of the Hutton report into the death of scientist Dr David Kelly. Other...

BBC buys up 'Hutton inquiry' Google links Owen Gibson Monday January 26, 2004 Just 48 hours before Lord Hutton delivers his verdict on the controversy surrounding the death of Dr David Kelly, the BBC has begun an advertising experiment that involves buying up all internet search terms relating to the inquiry. Despite being one of the main players in the drama, anyone searching for "Hutton inquiry" or "Hutton report" on the UK's most popular search engine Google is automatically directed to a paid-for link to BBC Online's own news coverage of the inquiry. No other news broadcaster or any newspaper...

Hutton to rap 5 over Kelly Written warning ... (from left) Richard Sambrook, Geoff Hoon, Andrew Gilligan, Greg Dyke and Alastair Campbell RELATED STORIES • The Sun Says • Can he win election No3? By DAVID WOODING Whitehall Editor FIVE senior figures will be slated in the Hutton report — as the PM is cleared of blame over the death of Dr David Kelly. Tony Blair is the only key player in the affair not sent a warning letter by Lord Hutton. Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon and former Downing Street communications chief Alastair Campbell were among those told they will...

The late weapons expert Dr David Kelly said it would take Iraq "days or weeks" to deploy weapons of mass destruction. His view, at odds with the claim Iraq could launch weapons in 45 minutes, is in a previously unbroadcast interview shown in a BBC Panorama special. Panorama disputes a BBC report that No 10 ordered intelligence chiefs to add things to the Iraq weapons dossier. It also hears from an ex-intelligence boss who fears his successors were part of Tony Blair's "magic circle". Dr Kelly apparently committed suicide after being named as the suspected source for a BBC story...

LONDON, Jan 21 (Reuters) - David Kelly, the weapons expert whose suicide rocked the British government, believed Iraq did pose an immediate threat, the BBC said on Wednesday, just days before a critical report into his death. Kelly told the BBC before the war that Iraq's weapons could have taken "days or weeks" to deploy. But he did not back Prime Minister Tony Blair's notorious claim that they could be fired in 45 minutes. The failure to find Iraq's weapons of mass destruction -- the primary Anglo-American motive for war -- has eroded public trust in Blair, putting him in...

The voice of David Kelly came from beyond the grave today after the BBC decided to broadcast a previously unseen interview with the weapons expert who apparently committed suicide last July. In the interview he is asked whether he thought Iraq's weapons of mass destruction posed an "imminent threat". He replied "yes". "Yes, they are. Even if they weren't actually filled and deployed today, the capability exists to to get them filled and deployed within days and weeks." The interview is being broadcast tonight in a special edition of Panorama by investigative reporter John Ware, and will reignite the controversy...

Gilligan threat to expose BBC bosses if forced out By Francis Elliott, Deputy Political Editor 04 January 2004 BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan has warned his managers that he will reveal their role in the "outing" of David Kelly if he is forced to resign as a result of the Hutton report. The journalist fears he is to be scapegoated by the corporation if, as expected, Lord Hutton is highly critical of the BBC when his report into the circumstances surrounding the death of the weapons scientist is published next week. Mr Gilligan faces particular censure for leaking to MPs the...

<p>LONDON &#8212; British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon yesterday denied the government conspired to publicly identify a weapons adviser caught in a political storm over the government's case for war in Iraq.</p> <p>Appearing before an inquiry, Mr. Hoon rejected a suggestion that a series of statements and briefings by officials amounted to a deliberate strategy to identify arms expert David Kelly as the possible source for a British Broadcasting Corp. report that the government exaggerated the threat from Iraqi weapons.</p>

Andrew Gilligan's reporting did incalculable harm to Tony Blair and to journalism, writes Gerard Henderson. Tony Blair: more spinned against than spinner - with respect to Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, at least? On the evidence taken so far, this is a possible finding from Lord Hutton's investigation into the circumstances surrounding the tragic death (apparently by suicide) of the British scientist Dr David Kelly. The Hutton inquiry is regarded as providing a unique insight into the operations of democratic governments - political leaders and their advisers, bureaucrats, the military, even security services. Much of the material which has come...

BBC bid to defuse Hutton attack Matt Wells, media correspondent Monday September 22, 2003 The Guardian Andrew Gilligan is likely to lose his Today programme position as part of a wide-ranging BBC shakeup intended to defuse criticism of the corporation in the forthcoming Hutton report. The BBC also plans radical changes in the way it deals with complaints about its programmes. Greg Dyke, the director general, is said to want a "culture change" in the BBC, leading to a greater readiness to admit mistakes. The move comes as pressure also mounts on Downing Street at the start of the final...

A computer expert has pointed to "seeming anomalies" on the handheld computer BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan used to record his conversation with Dr David Kelly. The weapons expert's apparent suicide came after he was named as the suspected source for Mr Gilligan's story about the government "sexing up" intelligence in its Iraq weapons dossier. Forensic computer expert Edward Wilding told the inquiry he was worried about why Downing Street media chief Alastair Campbell's name did not appear in one of the memos on Mr Gilligan's Sharp personal organiser. He had also found some experimentation with the computer. "Somebody was looking...

<p>LONDON &#8212; A British Broadcasting Corp. reporter who raised concern that the government inflated its case for war against Iraq apologized yesterday for indirectly naming his source to a member of Parliament.</p> <p>BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan eventually confirmed that his source was David Kelly, a government weapons adviser who apparently killed himself after being identified by the Ministry of Defense as the unidentified official cited in Mr. Gilligan's piece.</p>

BBC on the back foot(Filed: 18/09/2003)From a journalistic point of view, it is difficult not to pity the BBC news managers. They are caught in an editorial nightmare. Having backed their correspondent Andrew Gilligan at the highest level, they now find his credibility and theirs unravelling in the full gaze of a public inquiry. Yesterday, Gilligan was seen to retreat on some of the most fundamental points of his contentious story. He was bound to accept a series of criticisms from Jonathan Sumption QC, acting for the Government, of the wording of his reports, his procedures in keeping notes and...

Gilligan apologises for errors but MoD man is defiantBy Sandra Laville and Neil Tweedie (Filed: 18/09/2003) Andrew Gilligan, the BBC reporter, admitted a series of errors yesterday in his report claiming that the Government "sexed up" its dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.   Andrew Gilligan leaves home for the Hutton Inquiry yesterday Under cross-examination by three QCs at the Hutton Inquiry, Gilligan apologised for his e-mail to members of the Commons foreign affairs committee, which was seen by some as an attempt to influence MPs in his favour. "I was quite wrong to send it . . ....

Mon September 15, 2003 05:00 PM ET By Dominic Evans LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's secretive intelligence chief conceded Monday that criticism of a dossier setting out Prime Minister Tony Blair's case for war with Iraq was valid because its most sensational warning was "misinterpreted." Breaking with precedent, MI6 head Sir Richard Dearlove testified via audio-link to the judicial inquiry into the suicide of a weapons expert, which has raised questions about Blair's reasons for war and sent his trust ratings plunging. Dearlove said he stood by the intelligence in the September 2002 dossier but added that a contentious assertion that...

MI6 chief: 45 minute claim 'misinterpreted' Monday September 15, 2003 Sir Richard Dearlove, the head of MI6 and one of the two most senior intelligence officers in the country, today told the Hutton inquiry the controversial 45 minute claim was given undue prominence. In one of the most surprising admissions of the inquiry so far, Sir Richard said the 45 minute intelligence had been misinterpreted. He attacked what he described as David Kelly's "serious breach of discipline" in discussing the Iraq dossier with reporters. Referring to the foreign affairs committee's report into the Iraq weapons dossier James Dingemans QC, counsel...

Internal emails disclosed to the Hutton Inquiry reveal that BBC governors feared the corporation was partly to blame for the death of Dr David Kelly, whose apparent suicide triggered the judicial investigation. Three days after Dr Kelly's body was found, Professor Fabian Monds, the BBC governor in Northern Ireland, sent an email to Gavyn Davies, the chairman, expressing his concern. "We are all troubled by the thought that our actions may have contributed, however indirectly, to this tragedy. Dr Kelly is one victim of this situation; there are others," said the email. Another governor has also expressed disquiet about the...

BBC to review news reporting Hutton documents throw doubt on Kelly witness Vikram Dodd and Richard Norton-Taylor Tuesday September 9, 2003 The Guardian The BBC is to launch a wide-ranging review of its news reporting following the row over its handling of claims by David Kelly about the government's September 2002 dossier on Iraq, it emerged yesterday. The BBC chairman, Gavyn Davies, wrote of the planned examination of the comments on the dossier in an email to the corporation's governors. The email was written three days after Dr Kelly's body was found and was submitted by the BBC to the...

"Hoon failed to reveal all" said the headline on the Telegraph website yesterday, and for some reason I thought it was a review of Calendar Girls, the new and somewhat twee British movie about the WI ladies who stripped for charity. Hoon, it turns out, doesn't play Celia Imrie's best friend and, so far as one can tell, isn't in the movie at all, but is instead a man called Geoff. He's not a member of the WI but, like Helen Mirren and Julie Walters, he and his friend Tony and other gentlemen of a certain age all agreed to...

Kelly surprised by Gilligan's methods A friend of David Kelly has revealed the weapons inspector was 'taken aback' by the way BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan tried to elicit information about the Iraq intelligence dossier. Ciar Byrne reports. September 04, 2003 Guardian Unlimited A friend of David Kelly has revealed the weapons inspector was "taken aback" by the way BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan tried to elicit information about the Iraq intelligence dossier. She said it was the BBC reporter who first raised the name of No 10 spin chief Alastair Campbell as the man responsible for inserting the notorious claim that...