Hoon meets Kelly's widow as pressure mounts

British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon met Dr David Kelly’s widow today as Tony Blair flew back from the Far East to recriminations over the scientist’s suicide.

Mr Hoon spent more than an hour with Janice Kelly in a private meeting at her Oxfordshire home as he came under mounting pressure over the death.

Emerging grim-faced the Defence Secretary would only say in a barely audible voice: “I came to see Mrs Kelly.”

Mr Hoon faces tough questions about the way Dr Kelly’s name was made public after the Prime Minister denied sanctioning the leak.

The weapons expert slashed his wrist at a beauty spot after being outed as the mole behind the BBC report that intelligence on Iraq was “sexed up”.

His suicide last week came just two days after he was publicly grilled by MPs investigating the BBC’s claims.

It presented the Prime Minister with the gravest crisis of his leadership during a marathon diplomatic tour of the Far East.

Speaking as he returned from the final stop Hong Kong Mr Blair insisted: “I did not authorise the leaking of the name of David Kelly.”

That placed the spotlight on Mr Hoon and the way the Ministry of Defence confirmed Dr Kelly as the mole.

He was identified by three newspapers – The Guardian, The Times and the Financial Times – after they put a list of names to the MoD.

Officials said that with only a small number of people fitting the mole’s description it would have been unfair to others not to confirm his name.

However, The Times is said to have put more than 20 names to them before reaching Dr Kelly.

The strategy was sanctioned by Mr Hoon and the top official in the MoD, permanent secretary Sir Kevin Tebbit, the FT reported yesterday.

However, it was likely that Alastair Campbell, as the Government’s director of communications, would have overseen, or at least been aware, of the strategy.

The Ministry of Defence insisted yesterday that it did not want to pre-empt the Hutton inquiry into the death of Dr Kelly.

But it last night described newspaper reports about how Dr Kelly’s name was disclosed as “misleading”.

Mr Hoon was “ready” to give evidence to Lord Hutton’s inquiry into Dr Kelly’s death, the MoD said in a statement.

“Speculation in today’s media about how Dr David Kelly’s name entered the public domain is misleading,” an MoD spokesman said.

“Lord Hutton announced yesterday that he would determine the issues to be addressed within the terms of reference of the inquiry.

“Like the Prime Minister, the Defence Secretary is ready to give evidence to Lord Hutton in public at the earliest opportunity.

“Geoff Hoon and MoD officials will then set out the approach taken by the department after Dr Kelly came forward and admitted to his meeting with Andrew Gilligan.”

Mr Blair, whose week-long trip has been dominated by the crisis, attempted to distance himself from the storm by saying it was “completely untrue” that he had authorised the naming of the scientist.

Questioned on why the Government confirmed Dr Kelly’s identity, he replied: “That’s a completely different matter once the name is out there. The inquiry can look at these things.

“My starting point going into the inquiry is I believe we have acted properly throughout. There are a whole lot of questions that the inquiry will ask and we will answer.

“When you set up an inquiry you can speculate forever about what the inquiry might find but let’s let the inquiry do its work.”