“I understand that Alastair Campbell has a very racy diary style, but this was never passed on to us,” Sir Kevin said.He also denied another claim in the diaries that he had described Dr Kelly to Mr Campbell as “a show-off”. When the Sir Kevin arrived, Mr Blair told him it was over and that he would be briefed by Jonathan Powell, Downing Street’s chief of staff.Sir Kevin denied a claim made by Mr Campbell in his diaries that he and Sir David Omand, No 10’s security co- ordinator, had been parties to a discussion on how the scientist’s name could be leaked. Lord Hutton told the inquiry that his report into the circumstances surrounding the death of Dr Kelly would proabably not be ready before the new year.Sir Kevin told Lord Hutton that the initial feeling among his colleagues was that there was nothing to be gained by naming Dr Kelly, but then the decision was taken to release a press statement, which started the process by which Dr Kelly was ultimately identified.Pressed repeatedly by Mr Gompertz on who took the decision, Sir Kevin said: “The change of stance, as you put it, was as a result of a meeting chaired by the Prime Minister. Sir Kevin was questioned by Jeremy Gompertz QC, counsel for Dr Kelly’s family, about a newspaper report of the conversation, which claimed he had made “a circular motion with his finger around his temple”, implying Dr Kelly was mad.Sir Kevin maintained that was a slur against him, but admitted that he had not complained to the newspaper, let alone taken legal action.Sir Kevin’s appearance to be cross-examined had been delayed by an eye operation. “I think we should go slightly further and publish how many staff we have got.”. Tony Blair chaired the decisive meeting at which a change of stance took place over David Kelly, leading to the scientist’s identity being disclosed, the most senior civil servant in the Ministry of Defence revealed yesterday.

“It is legitimate for there to be disclosure of the staff positions that MPs have.”Details of how much is earned by ministers’ special advisers is published, including the scale of payments made to Jonathan Powell, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff.Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes, supported the right for staff to keep their pay levels private but said MPs should be more open on how they spent tax-payers’ money.”There is a need to balance legitimate confidentiality for staff with the public’s right to know how [its] money is spent,” he said. “In the past lots of MPs were employing people at way below the going rate and some MPs were paying the entire amount to their partner and that was an abuse,” Mr Simpson said. The precise level of payments by MPs to their wives will not be revealed when details of their expenses are published for the first time next year.
About 70 MPs employ their wives, husbands, children or partners as secretaries or researchers. He had large amounts of oral evidence and documents to work through.Yesterday’s session was held to allow Sir Kevin Tebbit, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Defence, to be cross-examined by counsel after his scheduled recall last month was postponed because he needed to have an eye operation.¿ Baroness Amos, Leader of the House of Lords, turned down a Liberal Democrat request to publish the Attorney General’s legal advice for sanctioning a war against Iraq.. Some work would be done in the normal timetable while other overhauls would “piggy-back” on existing shutdowns.A spokesman for Transport for London said the work was making up for many years of under-investment. “It is a useful foundation, but the next key stage is to increase capacity and not just replace new for old.”. Lord Hutton has warned that his report into the death of the government scientist Dr David Kelly might not be ready until next year.

It could have been a lot better,” he said.Mr Howells insisted that the national railway system was “superb” and that it would be getting a lot better.Richard Bowker, chairman of the Strategic Rail Authority, said he had inherited “a mess”. The project, which involved the introduction of £2bn of new train carriages, was similar to rewiring a city the size of Portsmouth.A spokesman for the SRA said that not all the 1,500 projects would involve closing routes. “I am not going to make excuses for decisions made in the past. The new trains are gradually replacing the old “slam door” rolling stock as part of a belated £3bn upgrade, which will involve a massive boost to the electricity supply.Train operators have been forced to introduce the new trains gradually because the now defunct Railtrack failed to ensure that the power system was sufficiently robust.