Lib Dems demand full inquiry into Iraq war
The Liberal Democrats have reiterated their calls for a full public inquiry into the decision to go to war in Iraq.
Iraq has been absent from the national election campaign so far, but the Liberal Democrats believe that it goes to the heart of the issue of trust.
Charles Kennedy said today that Iraq should be a central issue in the election “not only because of what has happened, but because of what may yet come to pass”.
The Lib Dems’ focus on the war comes amid renewed controversy over the legal advice given by the Attorney General Lord Goldsmith on the case for war. The Mail on Sunday published over the weekend a leaked memo purporting to show that Lord Goldsmith gave the Prime Minister six reasons why the war might not be legal.
But, a spokesperson for the Attorney General insisted that Lord Goldsmith’s view, as presented to the Cabinet, was that the war was legal.
Speaking today, Mr Kennedy said the question of the Attorney General’s legal advice could not be settled until the Government published the advice in full.
And, he claimed that every piece of information released so far “has been wrung out of them in the face of stiff resistance.
“It took the death of David Kelly before, at the Hutton Inquiry, we found out the truth behind the dodgy dossier and the infamous 45 minute claim. It took an announcement from President Bush before Tony Blair would agree to another inquiry, the Butler Inquiry, into what went wrong with the intelligence.
“And we have still not had a proper inquiry into the actions and judgements of ministers themselves – as we did after the Falklands war.”
As such, Mr Kennedy is calling for a full inquiry into how Britain went to war in Iraq, which examines the political, legal and strategic advice given to ministers before the war, and what decisions were taken based on that advice.
“Every vote for the Liberal Democrats at the election makes that inquiry more likely”.
Mr Kennedy said that war had damaged Britain’s international standing and undermined trust in government and politics.
As such: “Every Labour candidate should answer for the Government’s rush to war. Every Conservative candidate should answer for their party’s supine support.”
But, Mr Blair today maintained at Labour’s morning press conference that he “did the right thing” in taking the decision to go to war in Iraq, and now was the time to look to the future.
Although he accepted he would be unable to change peoples’ minds, Mr Blair said that the “legal advice of the Attorney General was very clear” and argued that the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats had returned to the issue because they had “got nothing serious to say about the issues facing the country for the future”.
