Killer Black Rod memo revealed for first time
Last updated at 11:23 31 May 2004
The Mail on Sunday today exposes for the first time the 'killer memo' that demonstrates how Tony Blair tried to muscle in on the Queen Mother's funeral.
When the allegation was first reported by this paper shortly after the death of the Queen Mother two years ago, the Prime Minister claimed it was a lie and complained to the media watchdog, the Press Complaints Commission.
But he was forced to make a humiliating retreat when Black Rod, Lieutenant General Sir Michael Willcocks - the Parliamentary official in charge of the Queen Mother's Lying in State - resisted pressure from Downing Street to conceal the truth.
Sir Michael's secret account of the campaign of bullying and intimidation by Downing Street gives a damning insight into the way the Prime Minister's former spin doctor, Alastair Campbell, ran Number 10.
Until today, only tiny fragments of what came to be known as his 'killer memo' have been published.
Today, the Mail on Sunday publishes this extraordinary document in full. It appears in a new biography of Campbell written by Mail on Sunday political editor Simon Walters and The Spectator magazine political editor Peter Oborne, which is being serialised in the paper.
The authors also reveal Campbell's fury when he learned the contents of the 'killer memo' and was forced to abandon the Prime Minister's bogus complaint to the PCC. A snarling Campbell vowed to 'get' Black Rod.
To read the astonishing memo, click on the links below:
Click enlarge for page one Click enlarge for page two Click enlarge for page three> Click enlarge for page four
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