Howard calls on PM to resign
Opposition leader Michael Howard has called for Tony Blair to resign because he failed to ask “basic questions” about intelligence used as the basis for the government’s dossier on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
The prime minister has revealed that he was not aware that the claim that Iraq could launch WMD within 45 minutes referred to battlefield arms not missiles.
Conservative leader Michael Howard said: “The Prime Minister took us to war without bothering to ask a simple and obvious question.
“That question is whether the chemical and biological weapons he thought Iraq had could be used only on the battlefield, or put on the end of a missile to be fired at British troops in Cyprus.
“I cannot imagine a more serious dereliction of duty by a Prime Minister.”
Former Commons leader Robin Cook has said he knew before his resignation ahead of the Iraq war that the weapons intelligence referred only to battlefield arms and it was difficult to believe that Mr Blair had not been similarly aware.
Mr Howard’s attack in the House of Commons came as defence secretary Geoff Hoon was grilled by a committee of MPs on the same issue.
Mr Hoon told the Defence Select Committee that he had been aware that the 45 minute claim referred only to battlefield weapons, but only after the dossier had been published.
He said he had discovered the information because he had asked the Defence Ministry, but had not told the prime minister as, “It was not a significant issue at the time. It was not a matter we discussed.”
He said it had not been a significant issue in the decision to go to war, but had it been, he would have informed the prime minister.
Mr Hoon denied that the public had been misled and argued that the 45 minutes claim had not proved a major basis for war in Iraq.
He explained that he had not seen the headlines in newspapers latching onto the 45 minute claim initially, as he had been out of the country. He had, he said, not felt compelled to try and correct the headlines.
Earlier, the prime minister’s official spokesman accused the media of trying to “re-write history” by exaggerating the importance of the claim and insisted that Downing Street had never stated that Iraq had the capacity to fire long-range chemical or biological missiles.
Questioned about equipment shortages in Iraq, Mr Hoon said the shortages had been more widespread and serious than previously thought, although he stressed that the operation was an overall success.
Mr Hoon is now meeting with the families of six Royal Military Police officers who were killed by a violent mob in Iraq last June.
They are expected to question him on why the men were left exposed in a dangerous situation without sufficient back-up or equipment.
