Last night his friend journalist Tom Mangold said Dr Kelly had believed

Last night, his friend, journalist Tom Mangold, said Dr Kelly had believed he was Mr Gilligan’s major source, after all. Mr Mangold said Dr Kelly’s wife had told her that her husband was infuriated and made deeply unhappy by the way events unfolded. “She told me that he was very, very angry about what had happened at the committee,” Mr Mangold said, “that he wasn’t well, that he had been to a safe house, he hadn’t liked that, he wanted to come home.”Last night the theories were rebounding around Westminster. Tony Blair said today that the death of weapons expert Dr David Kelly was “an absolutely terrible tragedy”. He said that while an independent inquiry sought to establish the facts surrounding his death “politicians and the media alike should show some respect and restraint”. Mr Blair, in Tokyo making a speech to business leaders during a round-the-world diplomatic marathon, told PA News: “I’m going to make a short statement and I don’t intend to say anything more about this issue “This is an absolutely terrible tragedy I’m profoundly saddened for David Kelly and for his family. He was a fine public servant who did an immense amount of good for his country in the past and I’m sure would have done so again in the future.

“There is now, however, going to be a due process and a proper and independent inquiry and I believe that should be allowed to establish the facts. “And I hope we can set aside the speculation and the claims and the counter-claims and allow that due process to take its proper course. “And in the meantime all of us, the politicians and the media alike, should show some respect and restraint That’s all I intend to say.”. After David Kelly wrote to his line manager at the Ministry of Defence to say he had met Andrew Gilligan at a London hotel, a wave of excitement and relief swept through Downing Street and the ranks of ministers. In a newspaper article, Mr Gilligan went further, naming Mr Campbell, Tony Blair’s director of communications and strategy, as the man who inserted the claim that Iraq could deploy chemical and biological weapons within 45 minutes.A bitter dispute between the Government and the BBC ensued. The war of words became a test case for a Government increasingly angry at what it regarded as the hostile tone of BBC programmes and a BBC determined to show it would not bow to political pressure.A molehunt was launched inside Whitehall to find Mr Gilligan’s source.

Ministers insist that this was a routine procedure and that officials such as Dr Kelly were not under pressure to come forward But Whitehall insiders claim there was a climate of fear “People were looking over their shoulders,” said one source. Some officials refused to speak to outsiders on their office telephones, convinced they were tapped. Journalists’ calls to some normally loquacious sources went unanswered.But the investigation had apparently made little progress when, on 3 July, a troubled Dr Kelly came forward to his line manager. According to the Government, he had been worried by press reports of the saga because he had met Mr Gilligan at the Charing Cross hotel on 22 May, a week before the journalist made his allegation.

Although Dr Kelly was convinced he was not the source, he was anxious because some of the points covered in their discussion featured in Mr Gilligan’s reports. MoD officials questioned Dr Kelly, in line with the department’s normal practice on personnel matters Downing Street is adamant that it was not involved. “We played it by the book,” insisted one Whitehall source.Dr Kelly and the MoD agreed that a statement would be issued that would not name him but would say that an official had come forward to admit he had held an unauthorised conversation with Mr Gilligan. No 10 was consulted about this move and approved it.According to Downing Street, Dr Kelly was warned that it was “quite likely” his name would become public because there were relatively few people working in his field. He was offered alternative accommodation by the MoD to help him avoid a media scrum outside his house. He was also told he might be asked to give evidence to the Intelligence and Security Committee, which monitors the security services.Dr Kelly was told he would not face disciplinary action because he had come forward, although he was given a verbal warning for talking to Mr Gilligan – described as a “mild reprimand” by Whitehall yesterday.The statement about the unauthorised conversation with Mr Gilligan was not issued until five days after Dr Kelly came forward. Whitehall says the delay was due to the need to assess whether he might be Mr Gilligan’s source and to “get it absolutely right”.