 Tim Sebastian talks to Malcolm Rifkind about the Kelly Inquiry |
In a Hardtalk interview broadcast on July 25, Tim Sebastian talks to Sir Malcolm Rifkind, Britain's former Conservative Defence and Foreign Secretary. They discuss the forthcoming judicial inquiry into the death of government scientist Dr David Kelly The announcement of the inquiry has done nothing to flow the stem of questions about the intelligence which informed Britain's decision to go to war against Iraq.
Asked should the Prime Minister resign, as some of his own party have suggested, Sir Malcolm says the question is "a bit premature", though the future of the Prime Minister will be seriously affected by the outcome of the inquiry.
He says the Prime Minister's authority has been very badly damaged, and that he's "in a vulnerable position because the grassroots in the Labour party loathe him not just on Iraq but on a whole range of issues". He's now seen almost as a liability rather than as an asset, by members of his own party".
In Sir Malcolm Rifkind's opinion, the argument for going to war is now seen as invalid:
"Tony Blair would carry more authority and people would be more tolerant if he admitted that, however unwittingly, we misled ourselves as well as parliament".
The Conservative party still wants a full judicial inquiry into the handling of the intelligence which led Britain to its decision to go to war.
'Over optimism
Lord Hutton, who is leading the inquiry, has already said he will decide what he thinks is fit to include in the inquiry. Sir Malcolm tells Tim Sebastian "people are over-optimistic on the government side if they think they can build Chinese walls between the circumstances of Dr Kelly's death and whether the government misled parliament".
On Dr Kelly's name becoming public knowledge, Sir Malcolm says what the Ministry of Defence did was the "worst of all possible worlds".
If, in public, they refused to give any information but in private they gave sufficient "hints and nods" to journalists for them to work out who he was, and then confirm the name, this was "deceitful".
If the inquiry finds that Defence Secretary Geoffrey Hoon sanctioned this, then it is "very damaging" to him personally.
HARDtalk can be seen on BBC World at 03:30 GMT, 08:30 GMT, 11:30 GMT, 15:30 GMT, 18:30 GMT and 23:30 GMT.
It can also be seen on BBC News 24 at 03:30 GMT and 22:30 GMT
One-Minute World News 
News services
E-mail this to a friend 
Printable version 
Click here to watch the full interview 
