Kennedy: the public may never trust Blair again

Charles Kennedy has warned Tony Blair he may never regain the trust of the public who no longer know when they listen to the Government whether "what you are being told is accurate".

In an interview with The Independent, the Liberal Democrat leader said even those who supported Labour felt unsettled. "I think it's very difficult for the Prime Minister to regain the level of trust that existed a few years ago. Very difficult indeed," he said.

"That may be the inevitable consequence of events or the passage of time but it strikes me that there is just a fundamental sense out there that you can't quite be certain what you are being told is accurate. And that is very corrosive for a government - any government.

"People feel they are not getting the straight story," he said. Mr Kennedy reveals Tony Blair was surprised when he refused to take part in the Butler inquiry into the intelligence that led to the Iraq war. But he does not regret keeping the Lib Dems out of the inquiry.

"I don't think he expected the response that he got," he said.