Kelly blamed Number 10 for '45-minute claim'

BRITISH Government weapons expert David Kelly blamed the Number 10 press office for inserting the controversial "45-minute claim" into the Government dossier on Iraqi weapons, the inquiry into his death was told yesterday.

In a tape-recorded interview with a BBC journalist (played to the inquiry), Dr Kelly drew back from blaming Alastair Campbell personally for the way the claim that some weapons could be deployed within 45 minutes was used.

However, he said that he regarded the Downing Street communications chief as being "synonymous" with the Number 10 press office operation.

The inquiry, headed by Lord Hutton, is investigating how Dr Kelly apparently came to take his own life after being identified as the source for a BBC report claiming that the dossier had been "sexed up" in order to strengthen the case for war.

The tape-recording of his remarks was made by the science editor of BBC2's Newsnight programme, Susan Watts, during a telephone conversation on May 30, the day after the original allegations were broadcast on the Radio 4 Today programme.

In a previous conversation with her, on May 7, Dr Kelly had mentioned Mr Campbell's name in connection with the inclusion of the 45-minute claim in the dossier.

She asked him whether he had meant "Alastair Campbell himself" had been involved.

He replied: "No, I can't. All I can say is the Number 10 press office. I've never met Alastair Campbell so I can't. . . I think Alastair Campbell is synonymous with that press office because he's responsible for it."

Ms Watts told the inquiry that she believed Dr Kelly was making clear that Mr Campbell was not personally involved.

" He was talking about the Number 10 press office generically as a tribe rather than Alastair Campbell as an individual."

Nevertheless, the statement by Dr Kelly that the Number 10 press office was involved is likely to increase the pressure on Mr Campbell, who was named in journalist Andrew Gilligan's reporting as responsible for "sexing up" the dossier.

In her reports on Newsnight, Ms Watts quoted Dr Kelly anonymously as saying that the 45-minute claim "just got out of all proportion" and that there had been an argument between Number 10 and the intelligence agencies.

The inquiry also heard from another BBC journalist, Gavin Hewitt of the 10 O'Clock news, who also spoke to Dr Kelly following the original Today programme report.

In his note of the conversation he wrote that "No 10 spin came into play" during the preparation of the dossier and there was "unease of some substance" about the way it was compiled.

The inquiry also heard details of the blizzard of complaints made by Mr Campbell in relation to the BBC's reporting of the war.

One note from Downing Street, headed "Catalogue of lies", listed complaints about the coverage of the war in Afghanistan while others referred to reports by Mr Gilligan.