Contacted by The Slog this afternoon, Norman Baker emphatically rejected the idea that either he or Libdem leader Nick Clegg were in any way involved in the plot to winkle out the truth about the events surrounding Tony Blair’s decision to retire in September 2006.

Although he has raised doubts about the death of senior civil servant David Kelly, Baker told the Slog “While I retain an open mind about all these matters, I have not spoken to Nick Clegg at all about the events surrounding Mr Brown’s accession to the leadership”.
Mr Baker also explicity pointed out that he was not the ‘colleague’ to whom Robin Cook confided doubts about Kelly’s ‘suicide’.
Another senior Libdem source nevertheless last night repeated the suspicion that Tony Blair went as a result of ‘last-minute unpleasant pressure’ from Gordon Brown. “We believe it was definitely something Brown had only recently discovered” said the source.
This ties in with The Slog’s growing file on exactly when the pressure was applied to Blair which resulted in his change of heart about announcing a swift retirement. We will be publishing the results of that investigation in the next few days.

Norman Baker wrote a book about the death of David Kelly, and publicised it aggressively. He also campaigned for greater disclosure of MPs’ expenses, although in a letter in 2004 to Commons authorities he admitted that he wanted to charge ‘a computer and printer, with broadband access at my flat. I stress that the purpose of obtaining that is not in any way connected with work…’