This led to his name being released as a source. Because of all the controversy building up around him, Kelly took his own life.
An independent judicial inquiry has been set up by the prime minister under Lord Hutton to investigate the situations surrounding Kelly's death. Before his death Kelly had denied ever making the allegation about the sexed up weapon dossier. This, along with the suspicion around why Kelly's name was released as a source, has had and will have many repercussions for this government.
The media has played a huge part in the scandal surrounding the Hutton Inquiry. The BBC and more importantly their reporter Andrew Gilligan have been battling against accusations thrown at them by the government and Downing Street's press office. The main claim made by the media was that the weapons dossier that started the whole scandal was changed at Number Ten, probably in Alistair Campbell's press office. Because of the supposed accountability of the government to the electorate a society of spin has evolved. Spin is important to a modern government as it can be used for damage control in crisis situations or to make a populous react or think in a certain way. Alistair Campbell is at the heart of the scandal surrounding the dossier. This is because his department at Number Ten handles the media and Campbell is the prime minister's "spin doctor". When the dossier was reported as been "sexed up" Campbell's department began to talk to the media of England, through doing this they hoped to release the right sort of stories for Labour's image and at the same time hoped to defuse a situation like the one they are in now. The BBC were linked to the scandal and have tried to fight the government wherever possible as a way to show how they back their journalist Gilligan. Both the BBC and the government have failed to protect their image during this scandal.
This current Labour government is a very strong executive; because of this in order for the British political system to function correctly we need a strong opposition.