Hoon 'misled MPs on Iraq'

by JOE MURPHY, Evening Standard

Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon's attempts to cling to office will suffer a serious blow tomorrow when a Commons committee accuses him of giving "misleading" evidence over Iraq.

The damning charge against Mr Hoon is made by Parliament's highly respected Intelligence and Security Committee, the Evening Standard has learned.

In a landmark report, it will say he withheld crucial information from its inquiry into the row over the dossier on Iraq's weapons. It also says he ignored advice from senior civil servants by denying that Defence Intelligence Staff were unhappy with the document.

The report, which was passed to 10 Downing Street yesterday, is being seen by senior government officials as a grave setback to Mr Hoon's chances of surviving the Iraq dossier affair.

The same report will authoritatively clear Alastair Campbell, the Prime Minister's outgoing director of communications, of "sexing up" the document. But it will say the crucial claim that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction at 45-minutes standby should never have been included.

Overall, the all-party committee will endorse the way the dossier was produced, saying it was handled properly by both Downing Street and John Scarlett, the intelligence chief who wrote it for the Prime Minister. Faults in it were due to honest mistakes or muddle, the committee will say. That leaves Mr Hoon even more exposed as the likely fall-guy in the affair when Lord Hutton reports on his inquiry into the death of weapons expert David Kelly.

The minister was asked during a private committee hearing in July whether any officials in the Defence Intelligence Staff had complained about the contents of the government dossier on Saddam Hussein's weapons.

Mr Hoon flatly denied any concerns were expressed. But he was contradicted when it emerged in the Hutton Inquiry that two senior scientists at the Defence Intelligence Staff protested about some claims made in the dossier.

Most damagingly for the minister, the report will say he was briefed by senior civil servants before the meeting to expect a question about the DIS - and advised to come clean.

A memo to the minister from Martin Howard, the deputy director of Defence Intelligence, said: "The ISC is likely to probe the Secretary of State... about the process through which members of the DIS can express concerns about the misuse of intelligence."

Mr Howard added: "How should we respond? Recommendation: that the Secretary of State notes these concerns were fully aired as part of the process of reaching consensus within the DIS and within the JIC (Joint Intelligence Committee).

The committee says Mr Hoon's actions were "misleading" and "unhelpful". Such strong criticism from a group which was asked to inquire into the dossier row by the Prime Minister himself is highly damaging. The report will say almost all the most serious allegations made by the BBC report by Andrew Gilligan, which led to the exposure and death of Dr Kelly, were wrong.

It will declare: "The document was not sexed up." Instead, the MPs conclude, it was toned down before publication.

Senior No10 officials say Mr Campbell will be fully exonerated of the accusation that he personally pressured intelligence chiefs to exaggerate the threat posed by Saddam. This morning, Mr Hoon ignored reporters asking

him if he would resign. As he left Brighton, where he had spent the night after visiting the TUC, he said: "I really am very busy."

The MoD would only say: "We do not comment on leaks", while Mr Blair's spokesman told reporters to wait for the full report tomorrow. He denied any leak had come from Downing Street.

Tory deputy leader Michael Ancram said things looked "very serious" for Mr Hoon.

Lib Dem deputy leader Menzies Campbell added: "If these reports are true, then it is difficult to see how Mr Hoon can survive."

Most watched News videos