BBC chief quits over Hutton report

THE BBC’s chairman of governors Gavyn Davies resigned last night after the Hutton report into the death of weapons expert Dr David Kelly severely criticised the corporation.

Mr Davies said: “I have been brought up to believe that you cannot choose your own referee, and that the referee’s decision is final.”

He said he would be writing to British Prime Minister Tony Blair to tender his resignation with immediate effect.

Lord Hutton said BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan’s assertions that the Government had “sexed up” its dossier on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction and included intelligence it knew to be probably wrong or questionable were “unfounded”.

He also criticised the BBC management system which allowed the reporter to make his claims on Radio 4’s Today programme as “defective” and said the governors should have investigated the government’s complaint about his story more fully.

Lord Hutton said there had been no “underhand” strategy on the part of the Government to disclose Dr Kelly’s name to the press and cleared ministers from Mr Blair down of any impropriety.

But the judge did say the Ministry of Defence was at fault and should be criticised for failing to tell Dr Kelly his name would be confirmed by the MoD if it was put to press officers by reporters as the source for Mr Gilligan’s story.

The inquiry findings left Mr Blair virtually unscathed after a 24 hours when he had also faced a crucial vote in the Commons on university tuition fees which he won by a margin of just five votes.

One member of the government said last night: “There’s a real feeling that it’s time to draw a line under all this now and move on to the real issues. We could have an election in 18 months’ time.”

BBC Director General Greg Dyke last night publicly apologised for the accusations contained in the report which sparked the controversy.

He said in a statement: “The BBC does accept that certain key allegations reported by Andrew Gilligan on the Today programme on May 29 last year were wrong and we apologise for them.”

Minutes later, the BBC’s own political editor reported that the chairman of its board of governors, Mr Davies, would resign.

Mr Blair swiftly called for those who had impugned his integrity and that of the government to withdraw their allegations.

Mr Blair, in a statement to MPs delivered minutes after Lord Hutton finished reading out a summary of his findings, said his inquiry report “leaves no room for doubt or interpretation”.

Mr Blair told MPs: “The allegation that I or anyone else lied to this House or deliberately misled the country by falsifying intelligence on WMD is itself the real lie. And I simply ask that those that made it and those who have repeated it over all these months now withdraw it, fully, openly and clearly.”

Lord Hutton read out a summary of his 328-page report’s findings at the Royal Courts of Justice before its publication at 1.30pm yesterday. Lord Hutton said Dr Kelly killed himself by cutting his left wrist and his death was hastened by swallowing a “concoction” of pills and a previously unknown heart condition. The judge said no-one else was involved in his death and said that no one involved in the unfolding controversy could have contemplated or foreseen that he would take his own life.