Kelly receives posthumous award

Wednesday, 11 February 2004 12:00 AM

Dr David Kelly made the most important contribution to British politics in 2003, according to a poll of 36,000 TV viewers.

The Iraq weapons expert committed suicide after being revealed as the Ministry of Defence source for the BBC's report which claimed that someone in Downing Street doctored a September 2002 intelligence report to boost the case for war against Saddam Hussein.

His suicide sparked Lord Hutton's judicial inquiry into the circumstances surrounding his death.

Downing Street and the Ministry of Defence were exonerated of any wrongdoing by Lord Hutton.

The Channel 4 News poll for the awards saw former foreign secretary Robin Cook come in second.

Mr Cook resigned over the government's decision to go to war against Iraq without UN support.

Tony Blair - who came third - and George Galloway, who was expelled from the Labour Party, also featured strongly.

Other finalists were the poet Benjamin Zephaniah and David Chick of the campaign group Families Need Fathers.

Jon Snow will present the sixth annual Channel 4 Political Awards. It will be broadcast on Friday, February 13th at 19:30GMT on Channel 4.

Previous winners of the award include Tony Benn and William Hague.

Dorothy Byrne, head of news and current affairs at the station, said: "With movements like the Countryside Alliance and anti-war protest putting politics on the street we wanted to find a way of honouring contributions outside of Westminster, so we opened up the Channel 4 News Awards to non-politicians.

"The late Dr Kelly led the Channel 4 News poll throughout - an interesting indicator of how he was viewed by the public."

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