Campbell lambasts BBC over Iraq 'lies'

Tony Blair's chief spin doctor Alastair Campbell has accused the BBC of reporting "lies" and demanded an apology for its repeated suggestion the prime minister took the country to war on the basis of false information.

Mr Campbell attacked the BBC for standing by its now infamous claims that he had "sexed up" intelligence reports to provide a more compelling case for war in the face of denials from the prime minister and heads of the intelligence service.

In an impassioned attack on journalistic standards at the corporation, Mr Campbell singled out the BBC defence correspondent, Andrew Gilligan, for particular criticism as he gave evidence on the presentation of intelligence on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to the House of Commons foreign affairs select committee.

Mr Campbell dismissed as "lies" Gilligan's claim on BBC Radio 4's Today that senior intelligence officials had expressed disquiet at the way in which the government manipulated information it received from MI6 to convince the public of the need to go to war.

"I think it's time the BBC apologised to us," said Downing Street's communications chief.

"It is true that when the BBC representative [Gilligan] came to the committee last week, he claimed all he had ever alleged was that we had 'given it [the claim Saddam Hussien had weapons of mass destruction that could be deployed within 45 minutes] undue prominence'.

"I'm afraid that is not true. What he said last week was not true. It was a complete backtrack on what actually he had broadcast and written about in the Mail on Sunday, the Spectator and elsewhere.

"Now the reason why I feel so strongly that we the government, from the prime minister down, deserve an apology about this story is that it has been made absolutely clear, not just by me... but the prime minister, the foreign secretary, the chairman of the JIC, the head of secret intelligence service, the government's security and intelligence co-ordinator [have all said] emphatically this story is not true, and the BBC defence correspondent - on the basis of a single anonymous source - continues to say it is true, then I think something has gone very wrong with BBC journalism.

"The denial was made within an hour of the lie being told on the radio.

"Now I'm not suggesting he hasn't had somebody possibly say something to him but whatever he has been told is not true."

The longstanding ill feeling between Gilligan and Mr Campbell has helped fuel the row between Downing Street and the BBC.

Only last Saturday Gilligan wrote to the Guardian letters page to remind Mr Campbell, who branded him "gullible Gilligan", how the government spin doctor and his PR team wrongly dismissed his report in November 2000 that there were plans for a European constitution.

Gilligan declined to respond to Mr Campbell's comments.