Blair would have quit ‘if Iraq charges true’

BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair told the Hutton Inquiry yesterday that if a BBC story claiming his government had “sexed up” its dossier on Iraqi weapons was true he would have resigned.

Speaking at an inquiry into the suicide of scientist Dr David Kelly who was the main source for the report, Mr Blair denied his government had exaggerated the threat posed by Iraq in a key intelligence dossier published last September.

“This was an allegation that we had behaved in a way which...if true would have merited my resignation,” he said.

Dr Kelly killed himself last month, just days after being publicly questioned by politicians in Westminster.

Mr Blair said he faced a tough call over whether or not to push Dr Kelly into the limelight. While officials were involved in the decision to out Dr Kelly, he said: “I take full responsibility.”

Mr Blair said any key decisions on Dr Kelly in the days before his death had been made with the full “consensus” of senior civil servants.

It followed British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon’s efforts on Wednesday to distance himself from decisions relating to Dr Kelly after he came forward as the source of a BBC story.

In contrast, Mr Blair said that he was not trying to deny responsibility for the decision to make the information public, but had wanted to ensure that it was handled “by the book”.

Mr Blair told the inquiry that he had been in a “quandary” over how to act after Dr Kelly first came forward because at that stage it was not clear whether he was actually the source of the BBC story.

“We described the intelligence in a way that was perfectly justified,” said Mr Blair

However, Mr Blair, whose public ratings have plunged during the inquiry, acknowledged he was under intense pressure to make a strong case for disarming Iraq.

“The clamour for us to produce evidence was very strong,” he said.

“We had to disclose what we knew because there was an enormous clamour...it was important it (the dossier) made the best case we could have.”