July 23, 2003	Wednesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 22, 1424

TOKYO-LONDON: The Prime Minister’s close ally Peter Mandelson made an astonishing attack on the BBC on Saturday night as Tony Blair faced the deepest crisis of his leadership over the death of scientist David Kelly.

The outburst followed demands from Labour MPs for both the prime minister (Tony Blair) and his director of communications, Alastair Campbell, to resign as the row over the use of intelligence in the run-up to war against Iraq claimed its first human casualty. It came despite appeals from an emotional Blair for “respect and restraint” until the full facts were known.

Calling for a fundamental change in the “poisonous relationship” between politicians and the media, the former Northern Ireland Secretary blamed the BBC’s pursuit of Alastair Campbell for the way the row between them had spiralled out of control.

Writing in The Observer, Mandelson said: “It was the BBC’s obsession with him [Campbell] that led more than anything to the breakdown in relations between the government and Britain’s principal public service broadcaster, with the result we have seen.”

The corporation’s reporting of claims that intelligence was “sexed up” to justify the war — allegations for which Kelly was identified as the source — was “simply not good enough”, said Mandelson.

His intervention will be seen by some as a smokescreen to protect a prime minister now facing the most dangerous time of his six years in Downing Street. But with shaken ministers and aides privately admitting that the dispute between the BBC and Downing Street had got out of hand and that all sides should now step back from the brink, it is unclear how Mandelson’s intervention will be received.

One senior minister warned both sides against trying to claim more scalps, either Campbell’s or the BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan’s, adding: “Don’t we ever learn?”

The government has established a judicial inquiry into the Kelly affair, which is due to report by September. But Iain Duncan Smith, the Tory leader, warned that its scope was not wide enough and called for parliament to be recalled from its summer recess.

Earlier Blair, speaking in Tokyo, had refused to answer journalists who asked whether he felt he had “blood on his hands”. Instead he praised Kelly as a “fine public servant who did an enormous amount of good for his country in the past and I am sure would have done so again in future.”

Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, described the death as a “sad and bleak” episode, but said the Ministry of Defence had done its best to look after the scientist. He said he had asked the Commons committee probing the intelligence row to go gently with Kelly, adding: “My fear was that for anyone giving evidence to a select committee there is obvious pressure and stress.”

Mandelson’s onslaught was backed by Gerald Kaufman, who chairs the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee. He said the BBC’s charter should be reviewed and it should be placed under the supervision of the regulatory body, Ofcom.

“I believe the BBC has behaved deplorably and there are serious implications for its future,” Kaufman said.

“I do not see how a board of governors that responds in the way it did to this dossier issue can be really expected to carry out the function of making the BBC accountable. On 17 out of 34 days, the dossier was either the first or the second story on the Today programme, and that is obsessional.”

He added, however, that the Government was guilty of “over egging the pudding” in the run-up to war in Iraq. It had had a strong case already and had not needed to produce the dossier on weapons of mass destruction, he said.

Tam Dalyell, the father of the Commons, who made his parliamentary name when the defence civil servant Clive Ponting leaked him details of the sinking of the Belgrano during the Falklands war, said both Blair and Campbell must reflect now on their positions.

“I think this goes back to the manipulation in order to justify the war. My view is that, depending on the inquiry, they [Campbell and Blair] have got to reflect on their positions.

“I am not at this moment asking that the Prime Minister resign, but it may be that, after a few days, he will feel he has to move aside for someone else. It could not be graver for him.”

Former minister Glenda Jackson called for the prime minister to go, adding: “Bullets should be bitten.”

Some other Labour MPs have Campbell in their sights. He has told colleagues he will not resign and has “done nothing wrong”, but a close colleague said he was “desperately upset” and “depressed” by events.

Mandelson said Campbell was “no angel and is capable of making his own mistakes”, admitting his “bullish” style was not uncontroversial. But he insisted the “BBC’s fixation with him and its desire to “defeat” him at all costs led it to serious and damaging misjudgments”.

The Hutton inquiry will study inter alia who first let Kelly’s name slip to the media, exposing him to public scrutiny. Hoon has denied personally “outing” him, as has Campbell, but MoD officials say they confirmed Kelly’s name to journalists who guessed it was him after reading the Government description of its anonymous suspect.

It emerged that Kelly told journalists before he died that he felt he had been “put through the wringer”. His daughter Ellen Wilson said he had felt he had not performed well in front of the select committee, who repeatedly asked if he felt used by the government: “Being called chaff and a fall guy didn’t help either.” —Dawn/The Observer News Service.