‘Substantial rewrite’ of dossier authorised

DOWNING STREET authorised a “substantial rewrite” of the British government’s Iraqi weapons dossier in the run-up to its publication, according to evidence presented yesterday to the inquiry into the death of the government scientist David Kelly.

Documents released to the inquiry showed that it was decided that the dossier should be restructured “as per TB’s discussion”, an apparent reference to Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The inquiry, headed by Lord Hutton, also heard how Mr Blair himself chaired crisis talks in No 10 after it emerged that Dr Kelly could be the source of a BBC story claiming the dossier had been “sexed up” to strengthen the case for war. Mr Blair made clear that he believed Dr Kelly should give evidence in public to the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee.