Kelly was main source for BBC weapons story

The BBC’s credibility was questioned tonight after Dr David Kelly was confirmed as the prime source for reports that intelligence on Iraq was “sexed up”.

Defence official Dr Kelly committed suicide at a beauty spot three days after telling MPs he had not made the accusation.

His death presented Tony Blair with the gravest crisis of his career in the middle of a marathon diplomatic tour.

Dr Kelly sent an e-mail about “many dark actors playing games” just hours before taking painkillers and slitting his wrist.

The Prime Minister and his media chief Alastair Campbell faced calls to quit amid claims Dr Kelly was hounded to death to clear their names.

But the BBC admission cast fresh doubt on the report which sparked the furious battle with Downing Street.

BBC Radio 4 Today programme journalist Andrew Gilligan later insisted: “I did not misquote or misrepresent Dr David Kelly.”

However, his statement left questions about the report unanswered.

And the BBC was criticised for keeping up pressure on Dr Kelly but not naming him as the source after he was outed.

Dr Kelly’s local Tory MP Robert Jackson said chairman Gavyn Davies should go and director general Greg Dyke “should consider his position”.

Mr Blair, Mr Campbell and Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon still face serious questions over how Dr Kelly’s name leaked out.

That will be a key aspect of the independent judicial inquiry being carried out by Lord Hutton.

Mr Blair’s readiness to set up the inquiry sparked fresh calls for a broader tribunal examining the Government’s case for war.

However Mr Campbell, in particular, appears vindicated for the way he set about clearing his name.

He had been accused of inserting a claim that Saddam Hussein could deploy weapons of mass destruction in 45 minutes into a dossier on Iraq against the wishes of intelligence chiefs.

Mr Gilligan said the allegation came from a senior official closely involved in the preparation of the dossier.

His bosses never said the claim was true, only that under the circumstances it was right to make it public.

In today’s statement the BBC insisted: “The BBC believes we accurately interpreted and reported the factual information obtained by us during interviews with Dr Kelly.”

And Mr Gilligan pointed out a similar report from a colleague based on a separate briefing by the defence official went unchallenged by Downing Street.

However, Dr Kelly told MPs investigating the claims they could not have come from the briefing he gave Mr Gilligan.

“I believe I am not the main source,” he told the Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday.

“From the conversation I had I don’t see how he could make the authoritative statement he was making from the comments I made.”

The MPs called Mr Gilligan an “unsatisfactory witness” who had changed his story when he appeared before them for a second time last week.

The journalist had admitted his claims were based on “inference” according to one account of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing.

A transcript of the hearing, which was supposed to have been private, will be published this week.

Chairman Donald Anderson said today there was a “fundamental conflict” between the evidence it received from Dr Kelly and Mr Gilligan.

Mr Jackson went further, accusing Mr Gilligan of inventing much of his controversial Iraq dossier story.

Investigative journalist Tom Mangold, a close friend of Dr Kelly, challenged the BBC to say whether it believed the key claims were true.

He said he thought Dr Kelly had provided 60% of the information in Mr Gilligan’s report but the BBC must substantiate the rest of it.

“Does the BBC believe these allegations to be true? Does the BBC still believe these allegations were true?” he asked.

“Where is the supporting evidence? It did not come from Kelly, where did it come from?”

Senior Labour backbencher Gerald Kaufman said the affair called into question the BBC’s future as a public sector broadcaster.

Mr Kaufman, chairman of the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee, said the BBC behaved in a manner which a tabloid newspaper might “wonder about”.

“None of this would have happened if it had not been for the BBC story,” he added.

The BBC statement did not silence criticism of the Prime Minister and his colleagues.

Opposition parties continued to push for a tribunal capable of looking at government handling of intelligence as well as circumstances leading up to Dr Kelly’s death.

They were backed by Labour left-wingers who also questioned the roles Mr Blair, Mr Campbell and Mr Hoon had played in flushing out the defence official.

Former minister Glenda Jackson even repeated her call for all three to resign.

Even if vindicated by the Hutton inquiry, Mr Blair will face continued criticism over the war with Iraq until weapons of mass destruction are found.