The lightening of Tony Blair’s mood on Sunday afternoon was palpable. For two days, ever since news of David Kelly’s suicide broke during his Far-East tour, the Prime Minister had looked haggard and broken. His voice went miserable and panicky. But the BBC announcement that Dr Kelly was the source for reporter Andrew Gilligan brought the colour back to the Prime Minister’s cheeks.
Tony Blair and his Downing Street strategists believed that the revelation that Kelly was the source gave them the chance to seize victory in their six-week-old war against the BBC. They were certain they could identify fault-lines in the BBC testimony and secure an apology as well as the dismissal of Gilligan.
The Prime Minister’s optimism was premature. This weekend the government is back on the rack. There are now hanging questions about whether ministers pushed Kelly towards his death, while the Downing Street case against the BBC looks flimsier than at any stage in this wretched affair.
Kelly’s death has had the same effect as switching on the lights during a game of murder in the dark. It has caught ministers and officials in postures and in places where they were never meant to be seen. It has demonstrated how Whitehall works under New Labour. It has catapulted the row over the British government’s use of intelligence before the Iraq war into a new dimension. This is now a classic political scandal which bears sharp similarities to the Westland affair, which nearly claimed Margaret Thatcher 17 years ago.
As with Westland, the story revolves around a government leak. In the case of Westland the leak concerned a letter. This time the leak was of a man’s name: Dr David Kelly CMG. In the case of Westland, a Cabinet minister, Leon Brittan, copped the blame and resigned.
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