Tony Blair is preparing the ground to launch an independent inquiry to investigate the intelligence that justified war against Iraq … but only if President Bush calls for one first.
Both inquiries would then run simultaneously in Washington and London.
Although Number 10 was continuing to dismiss all suggestions that the Prime Minister had plans to order a post-Hutton independent inquiry last night, a government source claimed that a “UK response to any inquiry being ordered in the United States cannot be ruled out.”
With the US Senate and House of Representatives preparing their own analyses of alleged intelligence failures, the White House is believed to be on the verge of agreeing to a lengthy independent investigation that would deliver a verdict after this year’s presidential race in November.
Meanwhile, attempts by Downing Street and the BBC to draw a line under their bruising fight were hampered by Greg Dyke launching a furious attack against Tony Blair and the findings of the Hutton inquiry. He is accusing the law lord of ignoring the systematic bullying of the BBC by Alastair Campbell and accused No 10 of denying stories that later turned out to be true.
In addition Andrew Gilligan yesterday criticised the governors for accepting Dyke’s resignation and has said they should not have made such a craven apology following the director general’s departure.
President Bush’s demand last week that he “wanted to know the facts” about intelligence failures on WMD is thought to be part of the White House’s response to growing demands for an independent investigation.
Similar concerns over the failure to find any WMD, given by Colin Powell, the US secretary of state, and Condoleezza Rice, the US national security adviser, were made with the full authority of Bush.
Last night the former foreign secretary, Robin Cook, said that Washington would not want to see Blair concede now to pressure for a WMD inquiry and thereby “jack-up the pressure on the White House to follow”, Cook added that if the White House announced its own inquiry terms first “then Britain would indeed find it difficult to resist launching a parallel inquiry.”
However despite Blair and his former communications chief, Alastair Campbell remaining almost totally alone in their belief that WMD might still be uncovered, Cook told the Sunday Herald that another lengthy inquiry was “not needed”. He added: “We already have ample evidence. And to be frank about this we don’t need another six months to look at facts we already know.”
Despite Hutton’s clean bill of health for Blair the government is facing mounting pressure to launch an inquiry into the reasons for going to war.
Last night Cook accused the Prime Minister of “pretending” to be awaiting the conclusions of the Iraq Survey Group. In an article for the Independent on Sunday he said: “We know those conclusions. The hunt had been sufficiently intense to conclude that no WMD will be found.”
An immediate test for Blair will come this week when he faces the Commons Liaison Committee on Tuesday while the row over Hutton’s conclusions rumbles on.
Donald Anderson chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee has promised he will ask Blair “why he is the last person left to believe the intelligence assessment” that claimed Saddam’s WMD were active and an imminent danger to Britain.
Dyke yesterday fired off the opening salvo of his considered response to the Hutton findings by releasing a letter he had written to the Prime Minister in March 2003, while Britain was at war with Iraq.
The letter, complaining bitterly about the constant harassment from Number 10 over BBC news reports, was a late submission to the Hutton inquiry but the Law Lord did not consider it.
Downing Street demands included that Rageh Omar, the BBC’s Baghdad correspondent be withdrawn because of alleged bias in his reporting and constant complaints about John Humphries, the Today programme presenter.
Senior BBC executives, still in shock over the double execution of their director general and chairman, remain determined to defend the corporation’s independence against further attacks from the government.
Management at the corporation, now being led by acting director general Mark Byford, have signalled that they will fight any attempt to dilute the role of the governors or remove the licence fee funding, the twin threats the corporation faces under its Royal Charter review in 2006.
“The independence of the BBC is paramount, that’s why we get the licence fee and we’ve all got to fight to make sure that independence isn’t compromised," a senior BBC executive told the Sunday Herald.
BBC staff echoed that mood yesterday when six thousand signed and paid for a full page advert in the Daily Telegraph in support of Dyke and the BBC’s independence. It was signed by staff mainly working outside news and attracted support from a number of celebrity presenters like Jonathan Ross and Jeremy Clarkson.
Adverts for the vacant post of chairman will appear in the Sunday papers next weekend and the new governor could be appointed within three months.
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