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November 29, 2011updated 14 Sep 2012 4:57pm

Guido removes Campbell’s evidence to Leveson Inquiry

By Andrew Pugh

Political blogger Guido Fawkes last night removed a post relating to Alastair Campbell's evidence to the Leveson Inquiry and a link to the draft witness statement hosted on the website scribd.com.

It came after Lord Justice Leveson issued an order under Section 19 of the Inquiries Act 2005 banning advance publication of documents submitted to the inquiry.

Paul Staines, the man behind the Order-Order website, posted Campbell's draft statement online on Sunday via the document-sharing website scribd.com, and Leveson was initially considering making Campbell's evidence available on the inquiry's website because he was 'absolutely not prepared'to allow him 'the oxygen of publicity".

He decided against it after hearing submissions from Associated Newspapers counsel Jonathan Caplan QC.

He has also summoned Staines to appear before the inquiry on Thursday. The blogger insists the documents were obtained legally.

The evidence appears to have been removed from scribd.com.

On his website Order-Order.com, Staines said Campbell's evidence had been removed 'pending legal advice".

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He also claimed the first time he was made aware of the order was after a tweet by the BBC's political correspondent Ross Hawkins last night.

After removing the post he tweeted: 'To be precise, I knew about it, given you [Hawkins] and others had called all afternoon, but I had not seen it. Haven't been served."

Leveson's order reads: "No witness statement provided to the Inquiry whether voluntarily or under compulsion, nor any exhibit to any such statement, nor any other document provided to the Inquiry shall be published or disclosed, whether in whole or in part, outside the confidentiality circle comprising of the Chairman, his assessors, the Inquiry Team, the Core Participants and their legal representatives prior to the maker of the statement giving oral evidence to the Inquiry or the statement being read into evidence, or summarised into evidence by a member of the Inquiry Team as the case may be without the express permission of the Chairman."

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