Secretary called into question at ‘stitch-up’ Iraq inquiry
A Cabinet Office insider at the heart of the Iraq inquiry has left Sir John Chilcot’s investigations “flawed and compromised”, an MP has claimed.
Plaid Cymru’s Elfyn Llwyd will tell MPS later that secretary Margaret Aldred was appointed without reference to the civil service code by Cabinet secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell – and that the Iraq inquiry “may have been a stitch-up from day one” as a result.
Ms Aldred spent four-and-a-half years in the Cabinet Office as deputy head of the foreign and defence policy secretariat.
Mr Llwyd said the section was responsible for illegally planning “regime change” in Iraq and produced the so-called ‘dodgy dossier’ which justified the 2003 invasion. It may also have been involved in the practice of extraordinary rendition, he will suggest later.
“Can this inquiry be independent? Or is it a Cabinet Office subsidiary?” he asked.
“Mrs Aldred’s involvement and that of the section makes it difficult to know where the Cabinet Office ends and where the inquiry begins.”
Mr Llwyd said there was no evidence of any other candidate having been considered, despite requirements for an open and transparent recruitment process.
Sir Gus decided to nominate the Iraq inquiry secretary and agreed the appointment with inquiry chairman Sir John Chilcot. Both agreed the the secretary “should be a senior individual in the civil service, ideally with previous involvement in Iraq issues.”
The Cabinet Office has not provided any proof that it has taken measures to mitigate against the conflict of interest, Mr Llwyd added.
He insisted that officials had recognised a conflict of interest, but the Cabinet Office denied that any such conflict existed.
“Given the professional standards of the senior civil service, [inquiry chairman Sir John] saw no potential conflict of interest with her appointment as secretary to the inquiry that would, in his view, affect the independence of the inquiry,” a government spokesperson said.
