Nutt learned of job threat 'from the BBC'
Home Office denies telling BBC drugs advisor David Nutt's position was "under review"
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Thursday, 19, Nov 2009 12:20
By Alex Stevenson
Sacked drugs advisor Professor David Nutt first learned his position was in peril from the BBC rather than the government, it has emerged.
Home secretary Alan Johnson fired Prof Nutt from his position as chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs on October 30th after he openly criticised government policy.
In a letter to the science and technology committee outlining the events which led to his dismissal, Prof Nutt revealed the Home Office had told the BBC Prof Nutt's position was "under review" before informing Prof Nutt himself.
He had been due to give an interview with BBC Radio 1 on his growing concerns about ketamine, an interview arranged by the Home Office.
At midday on October 30th Prof Nutt said he received a phone call from the BBC telling him the ketamine interview had been cancelled. He was asked to comment and "replied that this was the first I knew of this".
Three hours later the secretary of the ACMD rang to ask whether he had access to his emails.
At 15:05, Prof Nutt wrote, "I opened the email from the home secretary and discovered that I had been sacked".
It is not clear when Mr Johnson's email was sent. The Home Office downplayed the significance of the timing.
"The BBC speculated his job was under threat but it never came from us," a Home Office spokesman said, directly contradicting Prof Nutt's statement.
"I'm not going to provide a running commentary on this."
Officials within the government knew that Prof Nutt was going to be sacked before the drugs advisor received his initial phone call from the BBC.
Professor Wiles, departmental chief scientific officer at the Home Office, admitted in separate evidence to the home affairs committee: "I was made aware by officials that the home secretary was minded to dismiss Prof Nutt during the morning of October 30th 2009."
The row over Prof Nutt's dismissal, which prompted the resignation of five other ACMD members, seems unlikely to die away soon.
Mr Johnson claimed Prof Nutt was breaching the code of practice for scientific advisory committees by not informing the Home Office of his article, The Cannabis Conundrum, in the Guardian published on October 29th.
Prof Nutt argued in his submission a range of general obligations in the code of practice justified his conduct.
These included "acting with a presumption of openness" and "acting in the public interest".