LONDON: Lawyers acting for the British government in the Hutton inquiry into the death of the weapons expert Dr David Kelly have flown out to see Alastair Campbell, the prime minister’s media director, at his French holiday home, days before his crucial appearance at the inquiry.

Campbell, whose evidence before one of Britain’s most senior judges promises to be one of the most remarkable pieces of political theatre since Tony Blair came to power, has been taken forensically through the evidence he will give to Hutton about who sanctioned the naming of David Kelly.

The government scientist committed suicide after being “outed” as the source for claims that the Government had deliberately “sexed up” intelligence against Iraq to make the case for war.

Campbell is one of three senior figures in Downing Street who will be called to account for their actions over Kelly. Their testimony is likely to be the pivotal moment in the history of the Blair administration, with some commentators speculating that if damaging allegations surface about the operation of No 10 then a number of senior figures within government will be at risk.

Campbell, Tony Blair’s director of communications and strategy, will be joined on the witness stand during the week by Jonathan Powell, No 10 chief of staff, and Sir David Manning, Blair’s foreign policy adviser.

It now appears that it was Powell who was the first person in No 10 to hear of Kelly’s name after he was called by Geoff Hoon, the Secretary of State for Defence, in the week beginning 30 June.

Powell liaised with Sir Kevin Tebbit, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Defence, and Sir David Omand, chief intelligence officer at the cabinet office. Campbell was not told about Kelly’s name until the following weekend.

Campbell has persistently told friends that he played no part in the “naming strategy” employed by the Ministry of Defence which eventually led to Kelly’s name being confirmed by the ministry.

He is likely to say that although he agreed the strategy once he had seen it, it had already been put in place by Hoon, Tebbit and Pam Teare, director of communications at the Ministry of Defence. Both Teare and Tebbit will also be called to account for their actions.

Campbell will also categorically deny that he deliberately inserted the intelligence claim that Iraq could deploy chemical and biological weapons within 45 minutes of an order to do so.

Hutton will focus on two key meetings, both believed to have taken place on September 9, last year, two weeks before the publication of the dossier. One of the meetings was of the Joint Intelligence Committee, chaired by John Scarlett. It was this committee that first agreed that the 45-minute assessment was credible.

On the same day Campbell chaired a meeting of the Iraq Communications Group, which had a close role in drawing up the dossier. It was only after the two meetings that the 45-minute claim appeared in a subsequent draft of the dossier.

Fresh evidence of tension between government departments over how to deal with Kelly has emerged. Senior Foreign Office officials said that naming him as the source was “irrelevant”, despite insistence from MoD officials that they would have to make a public statement about him.

Transcripts released by the inquiry last week reveal that, under questioning, John Williams, the Foreign Secretary press secretary, said that he thought the naming of Kelly was “irrelevant”.

“I thought it was very relevant to demonstrate to the media that the story was not true, but that demonstration did not depend on identifying the source. I can imagine circumstances in which the only way you can demonstrate a story is not true is by saying: here is the source. But that was not the case here because the facts themselves were so simple.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service.