The prime minister today failed to back his under-fire defence secretary, Geoff Hoon, after leaks of a parliamentary committee report appeared to accuse him of misleading an inquiry into the case for invading Iraq.
The Evening Standard claims to have a leak of the intelligence and security committee (ISC) report due out tomorrow, which it says will find that Mr Hoon withheld evidence from their investigation when it delivers its report tomorrow.
The Standard alleges that during a private hearing in front of the committee last July, Mr Hoon flatly denied there were concerns among defence intelligence staff about claims made in the government's dossier on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. The Hutton inquiry has since heard from two officials about their anxieties over the dossier.
The story was put to Mr Blair at PMQs by Iain Duncan Smith, with a demand to dismiss Mr Hoon if it was true.
(more)
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,1039335,00.html
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