Davis confounded by “dodgy dossier” rewards
The Conservative Party has said it would be wholly wrong to reward civil servants for helping to collate erroneous intelligence data on pre-Saddam Hussein Iraq.
David Davis, Shadow Home Secretary, was responding to a story in The Sunday Times which claimed Tony Blair wished to reward civil servants for their work on a “special Iraq honours list.”
A memo leaked to the newspaper suggested civil servants who helped the war effort from Whitehall could receive awards for their endeavours.
The memo said Mr Blair wished to recognise the contribution of some 50 non-military officials by granting knighthoods, OBEs, MBEs and other awards.
Mr Davis said the notion of rewarding civil servants for a policy that had failed was “hard to understand.”
He said the plan was “completely at odds” with the recommendations of the Commons Public Administration Committee which advised prime ministers should be blocked from granting patronage.
Mr Davis said he knew of no precedent of “a ration of honours for promoting the Prime Minister’s policy.”
The Sunday Times suggested that Jonathan Powell, Mr Blair’s chief of staff, and Alastair Campbell, his former director of communications, may also receive honours.
Sir David Omand, the national security co-ordinator with the brief to oversee the intelligence services, is reportedly in line for an award, as is Jane Marriott, head of the Foreign Office department on nuclear proliferation, and Simon Webb and Paul Roper at the Ministry of Defence.
The names are expected to appear in the New Year’s honours list.
