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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, August 31, 2003

Campbell Resigns Amid Inquiry into Kelly Affair

British Prime Minister Tony Blair's communications chief Alastair Campbell is to resign in the next few weeks, but no date has been set, Downing Street announced on Friday.


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Blair's aide Campbell resigns
British Prime Minister Tony Blair's communications chief Alastair Campbell is to resign in the next few weeks, but no date has been set, Downing Street announced on Friday.

"It has been an enormous privilege to work so closely in opposition and in government for someone I believe history will judge as a great transforming prime minister," Campbell said in his resignation statement.

He said he does not want to take on "another big job" but hopesto write, broadcast and make speeches.

In his statement, Campbell also said he made the decision to resign in April and did not link his departure to the ongoing judicial inquiry into arms expert David Kelly's death.

Blair paid tribute to Campbell, saying Campbell was "an immensely able, fearless, loyal servant of the cause he believes in, who was dedicated not only to that cause but to his country." "He was, is, and will remain a good friend," Blair said.

Campbell was at the center of a row between Downing Street and BBC, with the latter reporting in May that Blair's office had "sexed up" the threat posed by Iraq to make the case for war with Iraq.

Kelly, a former United Nations arms inspector in Iraq and the alleged source of the BBC report, died of an apparent suicide on July 18 after his name was leaked to the public. The affair has plunged Blair into the worst-yet crisis and pressure to sack Campbell is mounting.

During Lord Hutton's inquiry last week, Campbell denied all theallegations against him.

Campbell started to work with Blair after Blair became head of the Labor Party in 1994. He was named prime minister's official spokesman in 1997 when Blair came to power and moved to his current post in 2001.


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