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Brown’s “inadequate” Iraq Inquiry

15th June 2009

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced the arrangements for an inquiry into the Iraq war.

Jeremy Corbyn MP said:

“At last the Prime Minister has come to parliament to announce there’s going to be an inquiry into the war in Iraq. However, the announcement is wholly inadequate and does not meet the demands and aspirations of the vast majority of the British people.

“Half a million Iraqis have died. Many billions of pounds of taxpayer money has been spent on the war, and 179 British soldiers have died.

“To hold an inquiry of Privy Councillors, meeting in private to receive evidence and then report back to parliament after the next general election, is simply not an adequate response to this decision to go to war in Iraq.

“In my view, any inquiry must take evidence in public, and must be the subject of national public debate. It must also include a specific remit on the legality of the war, and must delve very deeply into the decision making process, including all discussions between former Prime Minister Tony Blair and former President Bush, including all communication between them in the spring of 2002.

“The war is not over for many people in Iraq, or for the families of those who have died, and all the millions around the world who objected to this adventure by Britain and the United States and who would demand something better than a secret investigation to answer to their questions.”

LRC Chair John McDonnell MP said:

“This is an attempt at a fresh start by Mr Brown, but it is typically cautious and a complete miscalculation. All this will do is increase the sense in the public at large that the inquiry is a whitewash”.

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