The Report of the Iraq Inquiry

381. When Mr Miller asked to talk to someone in No.10 about the latest thinking

on the dossier, “without getting into circulating copies just so as they are on the right

track”, Mr Smith suggested he should speak to Mr Campbell or Mr Tom Kelly on

13 September.183

382. On 13 September, Mr Campbell wrote:

“Meeting with Julian Miller … to go through the new structure. I was worried that

it was going to have to rely too much on assertion …”184

383. In relation to the recall of Parliament, Mr Campbell also wrote:

“I was worried that the dossier was going to be too assertive and that even

though the agencies presented it as their work, it would be seen as us trying

to spin them a line.”

384. Mr Campbell told the Hutton Inquiry that, in relation to the dossier, he had told

Mr Scarlett: “The drier the better, cut the rhetoric”; and that “the more intelligence

based it was, the better”. There was a need to distinguish between material in the

Government’s dossier and the IISS publication.185

385. Asked about the emails from Mr Pruce, Mr Smith and Mr Bassett, Mr Campbell

said that he could not recall seeing them.186

386. Mr Campbell was not asked about the emails from Mr Kelly and Mr Rycroft.

387. Mr Scarlett told the Hutton Inquiry that he had not seen the No.10 emails at the

time but he could see from the documents presented to him that some of the main

comments had been made orally in the discussion that had taken place in Mr Campbell’s

office at 6pm on 11 September 2002.187

388. Asked whether he had received the comments from No.10 orally from Mr Campbell,

Mr Scarlett stated that the person who had drafted the email recalled only that

Mr Scarlett had said to him that the points were from No.10. Mr Scarlett had “no

recollection” and “no record” of receiving the points, or who they were received from.188

389. Mr Campbell subsequently told the Hutton Inquiry that, in relation to the content

of the emails between Mr Bassett, Mr Smith and Mr Pruce, he stood by what he had

said on 19 August 2003; and that he could not recall pointing out any of the sentiments

to Mr Scarlett in their meeting on 11 September.189

183 Email Smith to Campbell, 12 September 2002, ‘Dossier’.

184 Campbell A & Hagerty B. The Alastair Campbell Diaries. Volume 4. The Burden of Power: Countdown

to Iraq. Hutchinson, 2012.

185 The Hutton Inquiry, public hearing, 19 August 2003, page 35.

186 The Hutton Inquiry, public hearing, 19 August 2003, pages 36-39.

187 The Hutton Inquiry, public hearing, 23 August 2003, page 61.

188 The Hutton Inquiry, public hearing, 23 August 2003, page 63.

189 The Hutton Inquiry, public hearing, 22 September 2003, pages 159-160.

186