BRITAIN: The British Conservative leader, Mr Michael Howard, opened a fresh assault on the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, last night after a second round of bitter Commons clashes over the David Kelly affair.
Dr Kelly was the Ministry of Defence Iraqi weapons expert whose interview with the BBC led to claims that the government had exaggerated the threat of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. He later committed suicide.
For the second successive week Mr Howard used question time in the Commons to attempt to put Mr Blair's reputation and honesty centre stage ahead of publication of the Hutton Report into the circumstances leading to Dr Kelly's suicide last July.
Again using all six of his allotted questions Mr Howard repeatedly pressed Mr Blair to say if he stood by his answer to journalists, on a flight to Hong Kong on July 22nd, when he denied authorising the disclosure of Dr Kelly's name as the suspected source for BBC claims.
To Tory jeers Mr Blair insisted he stood by "all that I have said in relation to this issue"; said Mr Howard was "effectively" accusing him of lying; predicted that the Tory leader would demand his resignation whatever conclusions were reached by Lord Hutton; and demanded an apology if Hutton cleared him of that charge.
However, Mr Howard appeared to scent blood as Mr Blair varied his previous assertion that he stood by "the totality" of what he had said in respect of the so-called naming strategy which led to Dr Kelly's public grilling by the Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee just days before his body was discovered in woodland near his Oxfordshire home. And he suggested that Mr Blair's failure to give a straight "yes or no" answer showed how "desperately dodgy" the prime minister's position had become.
Mr Howard first pressed Mr Blair to confirm he would lead for the government in the Commons debate due to follow the publication of Lord Hutton's report, which is now expected at the end of this month.
Mr Blair told him: "The details of the debate - whether there is a vote on it, who speaks on it - will be decided at a later time and announced in the normal way. You will have to be patient. But I can assure you I have absolutely no intention of doing anything other than leading the government's case on this issue."
Mr Howard said he was sorry the prime minister could not give a straight answer, suggesting he had taken "cold feet".
He then demanded: "When you were asked by Sir David Frost on Sunday about your use last week of the word 'totality' you said it 'meant everything that has been said, not just taking one bit here or there.'
"Does that mean that some bits out here or there of what you said (to journalists) on July 22nd weren't true?"
Mr Blair countered: "No, it doesn't at all. But what it does mean to say is that when we have a report that is going to be published within weeks, it is sensible to wait until the report is actually published before we debate it."
However, that prompted Mr Howard to write to Mr Blair last night again challenging him to repeat his claim that he did not authorise the naming of Dr Kelly to the media.
In his letter Mr Howard said: "On July 22nd, four days after you set up the Hutton Inquiry, you were asked: 'Why did you authorise the naming of David Kelly?'
"You did not say then that you could not pre-judge Lord Hutton's inquiry. Instead you replied: 'That is completely untrue.' "
Mr Howard then said that - because this exchange had taken place after the Hutton Inquiry was established - Lord Hutton was unlikely to refer to it:
"Indeed, as Lord Hutton has pointed out, you did not think it appropriate to make available to him the transcript of the answer you gave on July 22nd."
He continued: "There is no reason whatever to believe that Lord Hutton will feel he has any duty to touch in his report on the answers you gave on July 22nd. By answering the point I put to you (in the Commons) you would in no way be pre-judging Lord Hutton's report.
"Why, therefore, will you not repeat in the House of Commons the answer you gave on July 22nd?"
No date has been fixed for the publication of Lord Hutton's report, but it is expected within the next few weeks.