The Burden of Power: Countdown to Iraq - The Alastair Campbell Diaries (123 page)

I called Sumption from Gatwick, as I sat in the departure lounge bar, with the news blaring away, endless coverage of my evidence. He said he had been following it on the website all day and I did well. He sounded genuinely pleased. I thanked him, said I could not have had better advice and support. He said the next part of his plan was not to push for lots of cross-examination of the other witnesses. It was tempting to want to tie the BBC people in knots, but he reckoned Hutton would have probably made up his mind by now. I said it seems an age away that I was sitting crying my eyes out at Ian and Andrea’s dining room table, going through the last days of July in my diary. I watched ITN and
Channel 4 News
in the first-class lounge. The general view was I did fine. It had been a pretty extraordinary holiday so far. The first few days great. Then starting to get stressed as I worked on my witness statement. Then the dire sinking feeling when that letter came through with the list of areas to cover – fine – and then the bombshell request for my diaries, and suddenly feeling like I was in some awful Kafkaesque nightmare. Neil trying to assure me it wasn’t a hostile act. Then Sumption and the lawyers coming
on the scene. His legal advice clashing with TBs political instincts, and me backing the lawyer. Then Alison coming out, then home for the final preparations, and now all done, and on a plane back to France.

I finally got to Puyméras at midnight. It was fantastic to see the kids, and Fiona and I seemed to get on for the first time in ages. I was trying to switch off now but the message coming from London was that both the broadcasters and the press were overwhelmingly positive. As expected we had a problem when Godric went through his evidence and he was asked about the idea I had had for briefing before TB went to the Liaison Committee that someone had come forward and even though it was in my witness statement, I had not been asked about it yesterday; he was, and so the media went off on one about me having misled the inquiry. Of course Hutton knew that was balls but it meant more crap in the press. The Tories were also on to me re what they claimed was a discrepancy re forty-five minutes in my evidence to the FAC, and now this. Also, the Chidgey email was going big as a problem for Gilligan, but Catherine R was worried because she had done research for the whips. The BBC case having been poor, and us having so far thought to have done well, they were now working up the line that Kelly was caught in a mincer between the two of us. Philip had a load of the cuttings sent out and I did seem to have done OK. Even the
Mirror
and the
Independent
were not that bad. I had prepared better than for the FAC, partly because more was at stake. Also, I was more nervous and that had helped. On the diaries, Dingemans had been particularly kind in that he gave the impression I had volunteered them. I went to see the Kennedys to thank them for all their help, then sent a stack of thank-you letters. PG was worried that Peter M was moving in to fill the vacuum that would be there when I left. He felt it would kill stone dead any chance of using my departure to put spin to rest as a problem.

I called Geoff H in the States. He had read my evidence online, felt I did well and accepted that contrary to what some of the media tried to say, I did not drop him in it. He felt able to deal with the ‘plea bargain’ point. I was somewhat suprised to hear Kevin Tebbit had said he couldn’t recall saying that Kelly didn’t want to be named in the first wave of publicity. He also apparently gave a little soliloquy at the end which people didn’t think was very clever.

David Hill called me, said TB now seemed seized of the need to get rid of the Order in Council. Clearly people were getting at him. I was pretty sure Peter M was on that track. I felt very strongly that it was a mistake, that my departure would be enough to signal some change, but that he should not allow his central operation to be further depoliticised. PG was increasingly of the view that TB was a bit out of touch and remote.

I was struggling to pack a whole holiday into a few days, and failing. TB called. He said he had read the transcripts of everyone’s evidence to the inquiry. He thought I had been ‘brilliant’. He said he honestly felt it was word-perfect and he was sure the judge would have been impressed. ‘I think you just put it so much clearer than everyone else.’ My worry was that Hutton, based on some of the interventions he had been making, seemed to think it would have been possible for Kelly’s name not to come out, and we didn’t. TB said he was going to have to use his own evidence to be clear with him the nature of the media world we have to deal with. His worry was that Hutton may in the end just feel he has to have a balance of blame, rather than just state the truth, which is the whole thing stemmed from the
Today
programme broadcasting what they did and then refusing to back down. Though I was still getting an OK press for my own evidence, the focus re me had moved to what Godric said. It was irritating, though if Hutton was reading the press, it would give him another example of how they worked. Some of them were saying he looked amazed to hear what GS said re me. It had been in my own bloody statement.

TB and I discussed when was the best time for me to leave. He said if I was totally decided, it was probably better to go sooner rather than later. We discussed the Order in Council. He said he was not sure it mattered as much as my note suggested. In the end people in the system would know David Hill was his person. Yes, but the Order in Council makes explicit that he can instruct them. This weakens him from the start and that therefore weakens you. It was an important symbol and symbols should not be underestimated. He said he felt he had to signal change. I said my leaving would be the change. Yes but though David may not be you, he is still a Labour spin doctor.

He said he hoped I would continue to advise him informally, and that we would be able to speak regularly and go over things. He said there were not many people who were both good at strategy and
good at tactics. Re conference he now accepted Hutton would overshadow it but he still felt we had to get back on to the domestic agenda. Philip felt he had to explain Iraq better than we had so far because that was the source of most of the negativity about him. I felt he had to make the affirmative case for progressive politics. He said he had had a good meeting on holiday with Murdoch, Elisabeth [Murdoch], Les [Hinton] and Irwin Stelzer [Murdoch adviser]. He said he knew most of us had had a crap holiday but he had enjoyed himself despite everything and felt rested. But he knew the knives were sharpening for him and once I was gone he would have lost his main lightning conductor.

I had managed to get in a couple of nice and reasonably relaxing days, Fiona and I getting on well, but it was still on balance a pretty grim holiday. I had hoped to have time to think through what to do after I left, but the Hutton business really put paid to that. We set off for Troyes today to break the journey back. TB called when I was in the hotel gym. He was now back in the UK. He felt that whereas my evidence was good, Jonathan’s was a bit loose in parts. John Scarlett was up today and I had called him last night. He was very calm, very proper, focused but anxious. He said he was sure he had done nothing wrong and would be fine. He felt we had a good story to tell but he would rather that he didn’t have to be there to tell it. His evidence, needless to say, went well. So did Omand’s.

TB felt having looked at all the interventions by the judge that he was closer to our arguments than the BBC, whose evidence had been poor. He felt if there was one area where Hutton may have problems with the government it was over whether the MoD took sufficient care of Kelly. He was moving towards a line on Thursday of saying he accepted responsibility for everything as PM. He really hoped Hutton would draw a line and we would regain the space to get back focused on the domestic agenda. It was far from certain that would happen. PG told me the groups done recently were dreadful. I’m not sure TB got the scale of how bad public opinion was in parts. Philip and Peter H were both worried now that Peter M was TB’s main influence re strategy and communications, and also responsible for reorganisation of the office. TB felt I should get a column, make money speaking and basically keep helping him but in a different way. There was big coverage of the memo I wrote him from New York [June 3]. It was actually a good piece of work, but they were using it to show I was pulling the strings etc.

Scarlett got a terrific press. Hoon did badly, gave the sense he was trying to blame everyone but himself. We got home about 6 so that Rory could watch Man U vs Wolves [1–0]. I spoke to Alex [Ferguson] who said he was now sure it was the right thing for me to leave. He had followed the whole thing and felt I would be fine. TB was being briefed by the lawyers and seemed fine. He felt he should go big on the seriousness of the allegations and how those making them failed to see that and make sure he took responsibility for difficult decisions.

Geoff H got a dreadful press; now it was TB’s turn to take the stand. I missed his first briefing meeting, felt it far better he see the lawyers first and then work out what if any thought we needed to give re the media. He asked me what the desired headline would be. It was somewhere in the area of TB taking responsibility (which GH had not done) whilst defending the decisions we took. It was also an opportunity to lay out what it is like making some of the decisions he has to. People felt GH did very badly, and gave himself some real problems. We had done well so far because everyone had been clear about the facts, even where they were difficult. But Geoff had opened us up. I felt he had ensured that more of us would be called to the second phase of evidence-taking than might otherwise have been the case. John Scarlett and I were already pretty much settled to the notion that we would certainly be called back. David Omand then said he thought I did really well. Re the diaries he said ‘I hope you have all your diaries safely locked up somewhere – otherwise the men in black might come looking for them.’ I was not entirely sure whether he was joking or not. Probably not.

TB set off and everyone, including the media, said he did well. He said on his return he had felt totally robust, and the facts didn’t frighten him on this. No doubt his legal experience helped a bit too, and he felt that even though the inquiry team were in the driving seat, they were conscious of the fact that he was, when all was said and done, the prime minister. There were no attention-seeking histrionics, just more of the same fairly painstaking probing. He was clearly pleased it had not gone badly. I said that my evidence had gone well, his evidence had gone well, and I felt I should go tomorrow. It is the right moment. He looked really taken aback, but when I said we had agreed it would happen soon, why not now? Everybody is expecting it soon, but nobody is expecting it this soon, so why not? I was keen, within the limited room I had, to maintain an element of surprise
which would help me shape the mood around it. He then started to warm to it. He said I should use it to get up a big argument about the nature of the media. I felt not yet, that I should just do it, be very nice about him and the government, make the case for progressive politics, but then be pretty low-key until Hutton was over. I had agreed with Jeremy Heywood that when Fiona and I left we would have five weeks’ notice to work out. I told very few people what was happening – Godric, Tom, Anne, Alison – who all seemed both shocked and not shocked. My real desire was to keep it all quiet till tomorrow.

We had a meeting with Sumption and team in the Cabinet Room to go over the plan for the next stages, and in particular Sumption’s note re what we should aim to get from the inquiry. Again, he made an interesting strategic call. He did not think we should press for lots of cross-examination. Nor did he think we should be saying to Hutton that the BBC should be criticised. All we would ask for was an acceptance that the story was wrong and that we were justified in challenging it. Also on Kelly, he obviously thought it would be wrong to attack him, but equally he hoped to steer the judge towards accepting that Kelly did wrong. TB was as near to deferential towards Sumption as I had seen him with anyone for ages. He knew his reputation for being very clever if a bit awkward, and we had all been saying how good he had been so far. It was interesting how much the legal side of this was actually about presentation too. A lot of the points made by the lawyers were tactical presentational points, but with the audience the judge, not the press or public. What I liked about Sumption most was that he didn’t seem to care what the press or public were thinking about all this. He was totally focused on the judge.

I slept in a bit, having had a bit of asthma through the night. In to finalise my statement. TB didn’t want any sense in there that he kept persuading me to stay. He thought it would be weakening. He wanted to write his own words about me, that there are two ACs, the one he knows and the one the media likes to portray. I left him to it, put changes into my own statement and then made a few calls. I told JP, who was very supportive, thanked me for everything and said he would like to do the media on it once we’d made the announcement. I called Margaret B, DB, JR, Tessa, Charles C, Ian McC, Pat H, GH and a few others. I decided not to call GB because I didn’t trust his operation not to get it out ahead of me. Later – once it was out there and loads of messages were coming in – there it was on a long list typed up by Alison. ‘The Chancellor’s secretary called to say he
wanted to thank you for everything you’d done for the party.’ He couldn’t even bring himself to call.

MB was very nice, said she really valued the way we had always worked together, that I had done a great job but there was a limit to what anyone could take. JR said he had been at a party meeting at the weekend and when he did a big defence of me, he got a great response. Ian McC put out some really nice words. So did Robin C. JP said his main line on the telly would be that I had decided I wanted a change, spend more time at home, that I was steeped in Labour and would be badly missed. I got a message to Hutton as I didn’t want him to hear it on the media first. I told Dan [Bartlett], who said Bush would be disappointed because he was ‘one of your biggest supporters’, and I told Clinton and thanked him for his recent advice.