CLOSED IRAQ INQUIRY ‘TOTALLY INADEQUATE’.

CLOSED IRAQ INQUIRY ‘TOTALLY INADEQUATE’.

PRIVATE SESSIONS WILL NOT PROVIDE THE ANSWERS SO BADLY NEEDED

SNP Westminster Leader and Defence Spokesperson, Angus Robertson MP, has branded the UK Government’s inquiry into the war in Iraq in closed session as “totally inadequate” and warned that it will not provide the answers so badly needed.

The SNP have led demands for an inquiry into the Iraq war, and secured the first substantive debate in October 2006 – at that time the vote was narrowly lost by just 25 votes – with 12 Labour rebels. It was backed by all Tories and Liberal Democrats.

Mr Robertson said:

“As he reinvented himself last week, Gordon Brown told us he was committed to transparency in government. Today, the doors he was so keen to open have been slammed shut in the faces of our service personnel, the families who lost loved ones in Iraq, those people who protested against the war, and all of us who are paying for it.

“The claim that the war was about weapons of mass destruction was a blatant lie, a mere cover story unsupported by the facts, which has cost the lives of thousands of civilians and hundreds of our brave soldiers. The timing and scope of this inquiry all point to a desperate Government and a Prime Minister making a cynical attempt to boost his faltering leadership.

“We must learn the lessons from the worst UK Foreign policy decision in living memory and this can only be done through a full and open investigation - that this inquiry will take place in private is totally outrageous and entirely inadequate.

“The SNP have been pressing for years on this issue, and will continue to push until the full story about the events which led to the war in Iraq and the conflict itself are known.”