**Tony Blair’s former spokesman Alastair Campbell will become the most prominent figure yet to face the Iraq Inquiry when he gives evidence later.**The probe is looking at UK policy during the run-up to the 2003 war, its handling and aftermath.
It has also been announced that former Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon and former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw will give evidence next week.
Mr Blair is expected to appear at a later date.
His successor as prime minister, Gordon Brown, will not give evidence until after the general election, expected to take place in May.
Mr Campbell, who has given evidence to three previous inquiries on Iraq, was, in his own words, “alongside Tony as he made what was clearly the most difficult decision of his life and of his career.”
Mr Campbell is likely to be asked about the build-up to the war and his involvement in the drawing up of the government’s dossier on Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction.
Published six months before the conflict, it included a forward by Mr Blair in which he wrote that he believed the intelligence had established beyond doubt that Saddam Hussein had continued to produce chemical and biological weapons.
Mr Campbell, a former political editor of the Daily Mirror, was Mr Blair’s press secretary from 1994 to 2003.
The Iraq Inquiry’s final report is due to be published by early next year.