MP gives Kelly evidence

The Labour MP who heads the Parliamentary committee which quizzed weapons expert David Kelly just days before his apparent suicide today began his evidence at the Hutton Inquiry.

Donald Anderson was appearing on the eighth day of the inquiry into events leading up to Dr Kelly's death.

Labour MP Donald Anderson was likely to face questioning about the foreign affairs committee's approach to key figures in the Iraqi weapons dossier affair, including Dr Kelly, Downing Street communications chief Alastair Campbell and

BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan.

Televised session

The greatest attention was likely to focus on the committee's televised session with Dr Kelly on July 15, when the scientist told the committee he believed he was not the main source of the BBC's claims about Downing Street "sexing up" the dossier.

That view was accepted by the committee - although it later transpired that Dr Kelly was indeed the source of the BBC's stories.

Many observers viewed the committee's questioning

of the civil servant as excessively robust.

Following Dr Kelly's death, Mr Anderson defended the committee's questioning of the scientist, insisting: "If it was strong, the criticisms appear to be more directed against the Ministry of Defence, rather than against him."

Mr Anderson acknowledged, however: "I concede of course it was wholly outside his normal experience, therefore must have certainly been an ordeal for him."

Other witnesses

Mr Anderson will be followed by a series of journalists who covered the Kelly affair - Nick Rufford of The Sunday Times, James Blitz of the Financial Times, Richard Norton-Taylor of The Guardian, and Tom Baldwin of The Times.

Also giving evidence was David Broucher, the Foreign Office's ambassador-ranking Permanent Representative at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.

Lee Hughes, of the Hutton Inquiry Secretariat, was to be the final witness of the week.

Most watched News videos