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Emotional Campbell defends Blair | Emotional Campbell defends Blair |
(40 minutes later) | |
Alastair Campbell has emotionally denied Tony Blair misled Parliament over the intelligence in the run-up to the 2003 Iraq war. | |
Mr Campbell had to take a moment to compose himself after being asked the question on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show. | Mr Campbell had to take a moment to compose himself after being asked the question on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show. |
He said the subject kept being brought up by those wanting to "settle scores". | He said the subject kept being brought up by those wanting to "settle scores". |
The ex-No 10 communications director also said he did not think Gordon Brown had intended to cry during an interview with Piers Morgan recorded for ITV. | |
It has been reported by the Mail on Sunday that the PM shed tears as he talked of the death of his daughter Jennifer, during an interview for Piers Morgan's Life Stories. | |
Mr Campbell, who was Mr Blair's communications director until 2003, advised Mr Brown before the programme which is being broadcast next weekend. | |
'Beyond doubt' | |
He told the Andrew Marr Show that with the election approaching the only way for politicians to escape people's perceptions of spin was to be "genuinely authentic". | |
Mr Campbell said Mr Brown had become emotional in private when talking about his daughter, who died in 2002 10 days after being born prematurely. | |
Although he had not seen the interview being recorded, he said he did not believe the prime minister had gone on television intending "to cry". | |
Mr Campbell, who as Mr Blair's communications director was often seen to be at odds with then chancellor Gordon Brown, said he had been advising the PM recently on things such as prime minister's questions. | |
William Hague: Increasingly feels that in many aspects MPs were misled | |
He said he would not be returning to the work as a full-time job, but has been in the spotlight recently with the publication of a novel and an appearance before the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq war. | |
During the emotionally charged interview on BBC One, Mr Marr asked him about Tony Blair's assertion that he believed the case about Saddam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction was proved "beyond doubt" by the intelligence. | |
He said: "If beyond doubt is not established in the intelligence when this inquiry looks at the intelligence, does it then follow, yes or no, the prime minister misled Parliament?" | |
Mr Campbell replied that Mr Blair "did not mislead Parliament" before being pressed on whether that was the case even if the intelligence did not confirm the assertion. | |
He began to reply but paused after becoming emotional. | |
He said: "I've been through a lot of this Andrew. And I've been through a lot of that inquiry ... and ... Tony Blair, I think is a totally honourable man." | |
Inquiry to judge | |
Mr Campbell said the media was obsessed with "settling your scores and setting your own agenda". | |
"You did it again this morning, which is probably why I'm a bit upset, this constant sort of vilification. | |
"You compared the novel to the dossier, that it was all fiction and all the rest of it. It's not." | |
He added: "I'm sorry if I do get upset about this but I was there alongside Tony, I know how that decision weighed on him, I know the care that we took." | |
Mr Campbell said he understood why people were "upset" about the decision to become involved in the conflict. | |
But, he added: "The reason people are going over it again and again and again is because those who do disagree with the judgment that Tony Blair made actually don't want to see the other side of the story." | |
Shadow foreign secretary William Hague, speaking later on the Andrew Marr Show, said he was sorry that "Mr Campbell was upset" by the questions. | |
Asked if he thought Tony Blair had misled Parliament, Mr Hague said: "I feel that increasingly in many aspects of the case Parliament was misled but I think to come to an overall judgement on that question we have to see the inquiry result as a whole - this inquiry has been set up after years of pressure from us and other opposition parties." |