Campbell faces grilling over Iraq dossier

Alastair Campbell was last night facing a humiliating dressing down from MPs after the Commons launched an inquiry into claims he misled Parliament.

The investigation will look at allegations that the Prime Minister's former spin doctor misled MPs about his attempts to 'sex up' Downing Street's dossier on Iraq's weapons.

It is believed that Mr Campbell will be hauled before a committee of MPs to explain glaring inconsistencies in his evidence. If found guilty, Tony Blair's former communications director will almost certainly face a formal censure.

The Foreign Affairs Select Committee has launched the inquiry amid anger at differences between the evidence Mr Campbell gave it and the evidence presented to the Hutton Inquiry.

The row centres on his interventions to rewrite the dossier on Saddam Hussein's arsenal, which was published by Downing Street in September 2002.

Mr Campbell was pressed on the issue when he made his unprecedented appearance before the select committee last June.

He later submitted a memo to the committee in which he said he had only asked John Scarlett, the chairman of the Joint

Intelligence Committee, to make 11 fairly uncontroversial changes.

Significantly, none of the changes he listed in this memo referred to the pivotal claim that Saddam could launch weapons of mass destruction in 45 minutes.

The memo was leaked to a national newspaper by one of the Labour MPs on the committee, Greg Pope, in an attempt to deflect claims that Mr Campbell had sexed up the dossier.

However, Mr Campbell's claim was exploded when Downing Street was forced to hand over his original e-mail to Mr Scarlett to the Hutton Inquiry. That e-mail revealed that Mr Campbell had actually asked for 15 changes. Crucially, one of the 'missing' changes was a direct request to beef up the 45-minute claim.

The draft sent to Mr Campbell on September 17 - only eight days before the final version was published - offered a cautious judgment on this pivotal issue.

It said the 'Iraqi military may be able to deploy chemical or biological weapons within 45 minutes'.

In his memo to Mr Scarlett later that day, Mr Campbell complained that the use of the word may' was too weak. Mr Scarlett replied the following day that he had 'tightened' the language.

When Number Ten finally published its dossier with great fanfare on September 24, the intelligence services' original caution had been excised. The dossier declared that the Iraqi military are able to deploy chemical or biological weapons within 45 minutes'.

One committee insider said last night that members from all parties were furious that Mr Campbell had treated Parliament so shabbily. 'They are really angry about this and they want to hear what he has to say for himself,' he added. Another source added: 'I think some witnesses need to be reminded they have a duty to tell Commons committees the truth and not to prevaricate or dissemble. It's unacceptable for them to lie to us.'

The committee is expected to consider the issue following next week's half-term recess.

Despite the Labour majority in the committee, sources predicted that Mr Campbell will be summoned to explain why he failed to mention that he had asked for the 45-minute claim to be beefed up.

If the committee is unhappy with his explanation, Mr Campbell faces the humiliating prospect of being formally censured.

He could be judged to be in contempt of Parliament, a charge which could lead to a formal reprimand or even a ban from Westminster.

The committee is also expected to examine evidence from former BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan following claims that he may have misled the committee as well.