Dossier shows Byers 'misled the Commons'

Internal links

Dossier shows Byers 'misled the Commons'

Campbell 'played vital role in Sixsmith's exit'

'The problem is that Steve is very sore'

Stephen Byers, the Transport Secretary, faced damaging new allegations last night that he misled MPs in his Commons statement about the crisis threatening his political career.

An 18,000-word dossier compiled by Martin Sixsmith, his former director of communications, provides detailed new evidence that Mr Byers insisted Mr Sixsmith should lose his job as a condition of Jo Moore, his special adviser, resigning.

Asked by MPs on Tuesday if he would not accept Ms Moore's resignation unless Mr Sixsmith resigned too, Mr Byers replied: "There was no linkage between the two. Jo Moore resigned without any conditions being attached."

When asked if he made Mr Sixsmith's resignation a condition of Ms Moore's, the Transport Secretary replied: "No."

But Mr Sixsmith's dossier claims that Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's closest aide, told him in a telephone conversation on 17 February: "It [the compromise deal for Mr Sixsmith to move to another department] has run into a problem in the shape of Steve Byers. The problem is that Steve is very sore. The wounds are very fresh. He promised Jo that if she went, you would go too."

Mr Byers has always claimed he did not insist Mr Sixsmith leave the Civil Service as a condition of the resignation of Jo Moore, who was involved in a long-running feud with press officers at the Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions (DTLR).

Extracts of the dossier, passed to The Independent by a friend of Mr Sixsmith, reveal Mr Campbell played a key role in the talks on Mr Sixsmith's future, although Downing Street has denied that he was involved. The dossier also claims Sir Richard Mottram, the Permanent Secretary at the DTLR, admitted Mr Byers had promised Ms Moore that Mr Sixsmith would quit if she did – again contradicting what the Transport Secretary told Parliament.

It quotes Sir Richard as telling Mr Sixsmith: "He's invested so much face in this that his credibility is very much on the line. He's also made a firm promise to Jo that if she stepped down he would get your head to roll as well, so it would be very hard for him to announce that you hadn't completely resigned after all."

Last night the Opposition called for the new revelations to be considered by a full independent inquiry into the affair.

Tim Collins, the shadow Cabinet Office Minister, said: "Lying on television should be a sackable offence; lying to the House of Commons is unarguably a hanging offence. It is now imperative that Stephen Byers should come to the House of Commons to make an immediate statement to explain his position.

"If, as it now appears, he deliberately misled MPs, then it would be wholly impossible for him to retain his job.

"It will also have proved that the Prime Minister made a fundamental misjudgment in backing him."

The affair is expected to be investigated by a Commons select committee, which could summon Mr Campbell and Sir Richard to answer Mr Sixsmith's allegations.

The new revelations are a serious setback to Mr Byers, who won a reprieve after winning strong backing from Mr Blair, Cabinet colleagues and Labour MPs for his Commons performance on Tuesday.

The Transport Secretary is expected to argue that it was Mr Sixsmith who demanded that Ms Moore lose her job as a condition of his own departure. He will insist that he did not have a veto over Mr Sixsmith's future.

Yesterday Mr Blair gave his public backing to his Transport Secretary and defended him in the Commons against charges of lying. In a series of bitter clashes during Prime Minister's Question Time, Iain Duncan Smith, the Tory leader, repeated calls for Mr Byers to resign.