Tory leader: 'Shocked and horrified' at Dr Kelly treatment

Iain Duncan Smith said he was "absolutely shocked and horrified" at the way the weapons' expert was dealt with.

"If he is involved and if it turns out and is accepted that he knew about that treatment and the way that it was happening, then I think there is no other course than for him to go," said Mr Duncan Smith.

The prime minister and his supporters saw his reputation as more important than that of one of his officials ... in the course of that we saw the tragedy unfold of Dr Kelly Iain Duncan Smith

Mr Blair should also quit if the Hutton Inquiry into the death of Dr Kelly finds he "misled the country" over the case for war on Iraq, he said.

Mr Duncan Smith was speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme on the day MPs return to the House of Commons after their summer break.

The first day of the Commons session is expected to be dominated by Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon announcing the deployment of more British troops in Iraq.

'Resignation issue'

The Conservative leader said he still believed Britain was right to go to war with Iraq and he stressed the importance of seeing the job through in terms of stabilising the country.

But, he insisted: "If he [Mr Blair] did mislead the country then I absolutely think it will be a resignation issue."

Asked if he thought the prime minister had misled people, Mr Duncan Smith commented: "I don't know - that is the whole point about the Hutton inquiry in terms of the charges against him about the 45 minutes and also other aspects about the original dossier.

Did Blair know how Dr Kelly was treated?

"That is clearly for Lord Hutton to arrive at. I wish we had had a broader inquiry because a broader inquiry would settle this argument once and for all and I still think this is necessary...

"But there is another issue at stake here which I believe is also a resignation issue which is, I'm afraid, the treatment of Dr Kelly throughout all of this which somehow seems to have in part disappeared as a key issue.

"The prime minister and his supporters saw his reputation as more important than that of one of his officials... and in the course of that we saw the tragedy unfold over Dr Kelly.

"I think the prime minister needs to answer the question whether or not he sees his involvement in that, which at first he denied and has since accepted, whether that is also a resignation issue.

"I certainly believe it is.

"If he was involved, and if it turns out and is accepted that he knew about that treatment and the way that it was happening, then I think there is no other course than for him to go."

Reputations

Mr Duncan Smith went on: "I have been absolutely shocked and horrified over the summer about what has been unfolding over particularly the treatment of Dr Kelly.

"I am just appalled that a government can have sunk to this point where it treats a public servant in quite this way.

Dr Kelly was questioned by MPs days before his apparent suicide

"We have now got a government that believes in total politics."

Mr Duncan Smith said last year's row over the hospital treatment of 94-year-old Rose Addis, plus the Dr Kelly case, "shows a government that really cares nothing at all for what happens to ordinary people and that everyone becomes a part of their political processes, their reputations".

"If the prime minister - it is perceived and I begin to wonder about this - if he turns out to have been involved, have knowledge of what was going on with Dr Kelly, I think there is but no place for him to go but out."