British intelligence claims over Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction returned to haunt the prime minister yesterday.

Tony Blair's revelation that he asked the Commons to approve the war against Iraq without knowing that the 45-minute claim in the Downing Street dossier referred only to battlefield weapons leads many of today's front pages.

The prime minister was speaking during the debate on the Hutton report, after anti-war protestors had caused the Commons to be suspended for 10 minutes. It was the first time that officials had been forced to clear the gallery since 1987.

Robin Cook, speaking later in the debate, expressed his doubts over Blair's comments.

“I find it difficult to reconcile what I knew and what I am sure the prime minister knew at the time we had the vote in March,” he said. 

In the Lords, peers also debated the Hutton inquiry.  Lord Birt, a former BBC director general, used the occasion to accuse the corporation of "slipshod journalism".

Meanwhile, a 135-page document leaked to today's Independent reveals that BBC governors ignored their lawyers' advice that Lord Hutton's report was legally flawed and instead offered the full apology that Downing Street demanded.