BRITAIN: The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, was pressed yesterday over a late submission by his government to the Hutton inquiry, which is due to report shortly, into the death of a British scientist, David Kelly.
Mr Blair's spokesman admitted the government had sent information to senior judge Lord Hutton after he concluded his investigation last autumn but denied it included new evidence.
Conservatives demanded its publication and accused Mr Blair of trying to pre-empt Lord Hutton's findings. But Lord Hutton said there was nothing surprising about the submission.
Weapons expert David Kelly slashed his wrist last July after being exposed as the source behind a BBC reporter's claim that Mr Blair and his team inflated the threat posed by Iraq to justify a war that most Britons opposed.
Speculation is rife that the prime minister's team wanted to put their slant on evidence given by Sir Kevin Tebbit, the leading civil servant at the Ministry of Defence.
At the last day of the inquiry, Sir Kevin said Mr Blair had chaired a meeting where it was decided to make a statement publicly clarifying the government's position, a move which led to Kelly's exposure.
Days after Kelly's death, Mr Blair emphatically denied to reporters that he authorised the leaking of the scientist's name to the media.
In a statement yesterday, Lord Hutton said all parties to the inquiry had been given the opportunity to make late submissions and that the government, the BBC and the Kelly family had done so.
The judge said there was nothing "unexpected or of special significance" in their actions and that he had decided not to publish them before issuing his report.
Mr Blair's spokesman refused to be drawn on the contents of the government's evidence.
British political life is all but frozen in anticipation of the report. It is due to be released this month and could point the finger of blame at senior government figures. No publication date has been named, serving only to increase the tension.
In the House of Commons, Conservative leader Mr Michael Howard pressed Mr Blair to confirm that he stood by his statement that he had not authorised Kelly's exposure.
Mr Howard said either Mr Blair or Sir Kevin Tebbit must be lying.
"I stand by the totality of what I said at that time," Mr Blair replied. When pressed, he repeated that phrase, which appeared to offer some room for manoeuvre.
"If you lie to the House 49 per cent of the time, it would seem that is OK because the 'totality' of it is that he spoke the truth," Conservative MP Mr Michael Fabricant said.
Mr Blair urged Mr Howard to wait for the report.
- (Reuters)