Hutton leak inquiry 'is yet another whitewash'

Senior Conservative MPs last night branded an investigation into the leaking of the Hutton inquiry report as "a second whitewash". An official investigation failed to establish how the findings from the final report of Lord Hutton's inquiry, which cleared Tony Blair of blame for the death of Dr David Kelly, were leaked to The Sun newspaper hours ahead of publication. A statement from the inquiry's office said: "The source of the leak remains unknown."

Richard Ottaway, a Conservative frontbench spokesman who questioned Dr Kelly when he was a member of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, said: "This is not only a second whitewash. It is a complete waste of the taxpayers' money. Everyone knows it was No 10."
The Sun's political editor, Trevor Kavanagh, told the BBC yesterday he was surprised the inquiry had not asked to speak to him about the source of the leak. "I wouldn't have told them anything ... but you never know I might have fainted and confessed everything," he said.

It would at least have shown that the inquiry was a serious one and was following the proper procedures, Kavanagh said. He added that it now seemed the leak inquiry was a "long and pointless exercise" designed to "cover their blushes" at the findings being leaked.

It was claimed the timing of the leak - on the morning the Hutton report was to be published - gave the advantage to the Government by announcing that Mr Blair and key ministers had been cleared of all blame over the death of Dr Kelly, the weapons expert who was implicated in the BBC story that No 10 had "sexed-up" a dossier on Iraqi weapons. Fingers were pointed at Alastair Campbell, Mr Blair's former director of communications, but Mr Campbell denied leaking the document. Copies of the report were held under strict security and delivered to Downing Street and ministers involved in the inquiry 24 hours before publication.

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