SNP TO CALL FOR EMERGENCY STATEMENT ON NEW IRAQ REVELATIONS

SNP TO CALL FOR EMERGENCY STATEMENT ON NEW IRAQ REVELATIONS

The SNP’s Westminster leader and party defence spokesperson, Angus Robertson MP, will be calling for an emergency statement in the House of Commons today in light of the revelations in yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph which had obtained leaked secret Government reports on the Iraq war revealing that the public and MPs were misled throughout 2002.

The Government reports received by the newspaper reveal that:

* Tony Blair misled MPs and the public throughout 2002 when he claimed that Britain’s objective was disarmament not regime change, and that there had been no planning for military action. In fact, British military planning for a full invasion and regime change began in February 2002.

* The need to conceal this from Parliament and all but “very small numbers” of officials “constrained” the planning process in the lead up to the war resulting in a “rushed” operation “lacking in coherence and resources” which caused “significant risk” to troops and “critical failure” in the post-war period.

* Operations were so under-resourced that some troops went into action with only five bullets each. Others had to deploy to war on civilian airlines, taking their equipment as hand luggage. Some troops had weapons confiscated by airport security.

Commenting Mr Robertson said:

“The Iraq revelations are so serious that I believe the Labour Government must make an emergency statement to Parliament on Monday to answer the fundamental questions they raise. Just what did Gordon Brown know and when did he know it?

“The contents of these secret reports are a damning indictment of how the Iraq war was resourced and planned – and how parliament and public were misled on a serial basis.

“As the Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time, Gordon Brown was the man who signed the cheques for this illegal war, and there are serious questions he has to answer.”