The Week in Politics: E-mails, memos and misinformation: an unflattering picture of Government

Watching Lord Hutton's inquiry this week, I couldn't help but contrast what we now know was going on inside the Government in the run-up to David Kelly's death with what we were told officially at the time.

In a previous column, I likened reporting politics to "observing an iceberg", saying that political journalists like me uncover only one-eighth of what is happening. The Hutton inquiry made me think I had overstated the media's ability to ferret out what really is going on behind Whitehall's closed doors.

I have been dredging my notebook and memory bank to recall what Downing Street officials told me during the events leading up to the tragedy. I was assured there was "no witch-hunt" to find the source of the BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan's report that No 10 "sexed up" the Government's dossier on Iraqi weapons. Well, you could have fooled me. It is now clear that Downing Street was desperate to find the mole in the hope of discrediting the BBC story.

After Dr Kelly admitted he had met Mr Gilligan and his name emerged, officials told me there was no question of him facing disciplinary action. We now know he was warned that he could be disciplined. When I reported that Dr Kelly's questioning was "brutal", I was told: "We are not talking about lightbulbs in the basement of the Ministry of Defence." We now know that Dr Kelly was subjected to a "security-style interview". In his own words, he was put "through the wringer".

At the time, Downing Street said repeatedly that the MoD was the "lead department" in handling what was essentially a "personnel matter". It is a line which No 10 witnesses have tried to maintain at the Hutton inquiry. But it is in danger of unravelling. We know, for example, that Tony Blair held meetings in his No 10 study on 7-8 July to discuss how Dr Kelly should be handled. Hardly a hands-off approach.

Then there is the growing list of doubts inside Downing Street about the Government's case for taking action against Iraq. If the e-mail by Jonathan Powell, saying the draft dossier did not show Iraq was an "imminent threat", had leaked at the time, it would have been sensational.

There is also damaging evidence that No 10 tried to manipulate inquiries by the Foreign Affairs Select Committee and the Intelligence and Security Committee to further its battle with the BBC.

At one level, we should not be surprised. Perhaps any government would use every weapon at its disposal in such a hostile media climate, and there is no doubt that Mr Blair and Alastair Campbell felt deeply wronged by the Gilligan report.

Any spin doctor will tell you: "I spin, but I don't lie." But when you look at what they said then and what we know now, you have to ask whether the Government crossed the fine line between spinning and lying. Of course, the officials never expected to be caught out, and never dreamt their e-mails and memos would be put under the public spotlight.

The e-mail by Tom Kelly, Mr Blair's official spokesman, saying the Government was involved in a "game of chicken" with the BBC, is one of those phrases that sticks - in the way that Jo Moore's "good day to bury bad news" missive on 11 September has come to symbolise Labour's addiction to spin.

The irony is that Mr Kelly and his fellow spokesman Godric Smith have tried hard to help the Government kick the habit. That is why, as neutral civil servants, they were brought in to take over the day-to-day briefing of journalists from Mr Campbell.

But, as one No 10 insider told me this week: "We have never managed to live down our reputation for spin. It only takes two or three stories a year to undo all our efforts, and whenever we start to get it right, another one comes along." When Mr Campbell leaves Downing Street after the Hutton inquiry, we will be told that Mr Blair has finally stopped spinning. This has already been dismissed by the media as another piece of spin in itself.

There is talk among ministers of a "new settlement" under which the Government gives up spin and is more honest about admitting its divisions and mistakes, as grown-up politicians such as David Blunkett and Charles Clarke have done. In return, the media would report politics more seriously and not treat every discussion inside the Government as a huge split. I doubt that either side is capable of sticking to such an agreement.

New Labour seems incapable of learning from its mistakes. Mr Campbell's protest to the Press Complaints Commission about stories that Mr Blair demanded a bigger role at the Queen Mother's lying-in-state rebounded when he backed down. By making a complaint, the allegation was brought to the attention of millions of people who would otherwise never have heard of it.

The "sexing up" claim was much more serious. But by pursuing its fight with the BBC to the death, Downing Street again magnified the original allegation - as well as contributing to the death of a man caught in the middle. With the benefit of hindsight, plenty of people in No 10 now wish they had called a truce with the BBC after the Foreign Affairs Committee found that Mr Campbell had not "sexed up" the dossier. But, it seems, he wanted blood - Mr Gilligan's. Instead, the blood spilled was Dr Kelly's.

The affair may also inflict lasting damage on Mr Blair. He will try to make a fresh start after Lord Hutton reports, and may be capable of doing so. But those e-mails and memos cannot be washed away, and they paint a pretty unflattering picture. It is going to be very, very hard for Mr Blair to win back the people's trust.

a.grice@independent.co.uk