 Lord Birt has declined to appear before a committee |
Tony Blair has defended his decision to prevent a committee of MPs quizzing unpaid Number 10 adviser Lord Birt. The former BBC director general is employed as a "blue skies thinker" in the prime minister's strategy unit.
But he has been accused of hampering a Commons committee's probe into strategic thinking in government by refusing to answer its questions.
Mr Blair said Stephen Aldridge, Downing Street strategy unit acting head, was best placed to answer questions.
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The prime minister was giving evidence to the House of Commons liaison committee, made up of the 31 chairmen of the Commons select committees.
His comments come after one of them, public administration committee chairman Tony Wright, wrote to Lord Birt suggesting he was "ideally placed" to help his commttee's inquiry.
Mr Blair was asked at the end of the two and a half hour liaison committee session by chairman Alan Williams "to go away and look again at whether it really is so important to keep Lord Birt out, and lose some of the goodwill you have with this committee".
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