Blair says he would have quit if Iraq dossier `sexed up`

London, Aug 28: British Prime Minister Tony Blair today said he would have resigned if it was true that his office "sexed up" a September 2002 dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
Testifying at a judicial inquiry into the apparent suicide of weapons scientist David Kelly, Blair said the allegation contained in a BBC radio report in May was "extremely serious" and "an attack on my integrity".
"We issued a strong denial which didn't really go anywhere," he said.
"It is one thing to say we disagree with the government, we should not have gone to war, people can have a disagreement about that . But if the allegation had been true, it would have merited my resignation."
Kelly was the source of the May 29 report, which was aired by reporter Andrew Gilligan on BBC radio's flagship public affairs show "today" as the Prime Minister was visiting British troops in southern Iraq.

Blair said Downing Street's concern deepened when ' The Mail ' on Sunday newspaper carried an article by Gilligan suggesting that close aide and media strategist Alastair Campbell had doctored the intelligence in the dossier.

The use of Campbell's name meant the story was "no longer a small item", the Prime Minister said.

"Ever since then that's been the issue, and here we are three months on and it is still the issue," he said.
Bureau Report