The family of Oxfordshire weapons expert David Kelly has criticised Cherie Blair for dredging up his suicide in her controversial memoirs.

Dr Kelly, who lived in Southmoor, near Abingdon, died in 2003 following reports in the media that the Government had "sexed-up" a dossier on Iraq's weapons capability.

Today, Derek Vawdrey, the brother of Dr Kelly's wife Janice, accused Mrs Blair of using her account of the tragedy to bolster her husband's reputation. He said Mrs Blair should be "ashamed of herself" after she wrote about Tony Blair's shock on learning of Dr Kelly's death and how the couple invited his widow to Chequers so they could say "how personally sorry they were about what happened".

Mr Vawdrey said Downing Street was responsible for the death of Dr Kelly, known to his family as Dai, and Mrs Blair was using his suicide to improve her husband's image.

He said: "It's a bit late for Cherie Blair to write that her husband 'knew that David Kelly was a loyal public servant driven to despair because of the furore'.

"Where else was the furore created but in her husband's office, with all that wicked nonsense being fed to the media that Dai was a Walter Mitty character and so on?"

Writing about the moment Mr Blair heard the news about Dr Kelly, Mrs Blair said: "I have never seen Tony so distraught and I felt helpless to do anything."