Congress grilling for BP chief

BP boss Tony Hayward endured a marathon grilling from US politicians who angrily accused him of evading their questions over the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster.

During a six-hour interrogation the chief executive faced coruscating criticism from members of the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee.

The embattled business leader looked drained as a string of politicians accused him of "stone-walling", giving memorised statements and "insulting our intelligence".

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When asked whether he expected to stay in his job at BP, he said: "At the moment I am focused on the response."

Mr Hayward's ordeal was not only at the hands of elected representatives.

As he prepared to give testimony, a protester daubed in what appeared to be black paint to resemble oil shouted: "You need to go to jail."

She was promptly ejected from the chamber.

During the fiery session, Mr Hayward was accused of ignoring safety warnings, attempting to shirk responsibility and presiding over "astonishing" corporate complacency.

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His appearance on Capitol Hill came less than 24 hours after BP announced it was to set up a 13bn compensation fund and scrap shareholder dividends until the end of the year.

But despite this and a fulsome apology, the BP man received a predicted mauling at the hands of committee members.

The under-fire chief executive endured more than an hour-and-a-half of attack in silence before he was given the opportunity to testify.

During that time, a succession of committee members lambasted both him and his company.

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Henry Waxman, Democrat chairman of the committee, accused Mr Hayward of not paying "even the slightest attention to the dangers" at Deepwater Horizon.

This was despite the oil firm's drilling engineer warning that it was a "nightmare" rig just days before the April 20 accident which killed 11 and led to the region's worst ever environmental disaster.

"BP's corporate complacency is astonishing," Mr Waxman added.

Pennsylvanian Congressman Mike Doyle accused BP of "bad judgment at best and criminal negligence at worst".

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He described the 13bn clean-up fund as "just the tip of the iceberg".

When Mr Hayward eventually got to read his evidence, he said he was "personally devastated" by what had happened and that it was a "tragedy".

BP would foot the entire clean-up bill, the chief executive said.