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Iraq Inquiry

I entirely agree with my hon. Friend. There have been many brilliant speeches in the debate and I do not want to repeat arguments that have already been made by others much more ably than I could. I shall pick up one or two of the points that have been made and try to add to the arguments, and then come to my own perspective. The hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne, North (Mr. Henderson) said that an inquiry now might end as an indictment of the Government's decision in 2003 and that would have consequences for our troops in Iraq. Our troops are now in Iraq on a wholly different legal basis from that in 2003 when they entered the war. They are there now on the basis of a United Nations Security Council resolution, at the invitation of the Iraqi Government. That argument does not hold water.