Pressure grows on Hoon to explain role in exposing identity of weapons expert

Geoff Hoon, the Secretary of State for Defence, was under increasing pressure last night to explain his part in events leading up to the death of David Kelly.

Mr Hoon's role at the head of the department that employed and named Dr Kelly as the source of BBC reports that the Government exaggerated the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction is likely to form a central part of Lord Hutton's inquiry into the affair.

The ultra-loyal Blairite Defenece Secretary, a former lawyer and law lecturer, was accused of misleading the public after claiming at the weekend that he had not leaked Dr Kelly's name to the media.

He faced questions about whether he acted properly in exposing the mild-mannered weapons expert to the intense scrutiny of press and Parliament and was criticised for attending the British Grand Prix at the height of the crisis.

Sir Malcolm Rifkind, a former defence secretary, said it was "improper" for the MoD to release Dr Kelly's name. He said: "What they seem to have done is the worst of all possible worlds giving hints and clues which made it inevitable that he would be identified, but enabled them to say we didn't actually provide the name."

Asked about the MoD's decision to confirm Dr Kelly's name, he said: "If that is what the press office ... did, were they acting under Geoff Hoon's authority and if they were, was he trying to please the Prime Minister?"

There was also concern over whether senior officials in Mr Hoon's ministry exerted undue pressure on Dr Kelly, such as threats to his pension arrangements, after he admitted meeting Mr Gilligan.

Mr Hoon told the BBC on Saturday: "I don't believe that I have done anything that requires me to apologise." Asked if he released the scientist's name, Mr Hoon said: "I certainly can only speak on my behalf and I can assure you it was not my responsibility."

But his claim that the ministry "made great efforts" to maintain Dr Kelly's anonymity was challenged after Pam Teare, director of news at the MoD, admitted: "We made it clear to media callers and to Dr Kelly that if someone put the right name to us we would be obliged to confirm it - end of story."

The senior source for the report had remained a mystery until Tuesday 8 July, when Richard Sambrook, the BBC's head of news, was asked to meet Mr Hoonto discuss something "important" in relation to the row between the BBC and the Government. Within hours, the MoD published a press release disclosing that an individual working for the Ministry of Defence had come forward to admit that he met Mr Gilligan on 22 May and could be the source for his story.

The statement, timed to feature on evening news bulletins the day after the Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee produced its report, did not name Dr Kelly. Instead it said the official was "an expert on WMD who has advised ministers on WMD and whose contribution to the dossier of September 2002 was to contribute towards drafts of historical accounts of UN inspections". It promised that the MoD would pass the employee's name "in confidence" to the chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee, which is conducting a private inquiry into the use of intelligence in the run-up to war. The effect of the release was to provoke a frantic media hunt for the unnamed mole.

The next day, 9 July, Mr Hoon wrote in confidence to the BBC chairman, Gavyn Davis, naming Dr Kelly as the likely source of Mr Gilligan's report, and asking the corporation to confirm or deny the name.

That afternoon, journalists from The Times, Financial Times and The Guardian, telephoned the MoD to ask whether Dr Kelly was the unnamed official. Senior press officers confirmed the name.