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Iraq Inquiry

I will give way to hon. Gentlemen in a minute. The right hon. Member for Richmond, Yorks, with all his usual eloquence, tried to suggest that the basis of his proposal was a bipartisan, fact-finding desire. The hon. Member for Kingston and Surbiton (Mr. Davey) was the first to expose the real reasons, as he stripped away the notion, carefully presented by the right hon. Gentleman, that it is about some non-partisan fact-finding proposal. He revealed that it is about political exposure and attack, and that that desire overrides all consideration of the fact that our 4,000 people are still involved and in harm's way while they conduct their task. The hon. Member for Louth and Horncastle (Sir Peter Tapsell) said that we do not need an inquiry, because we know all there is to know about what went wrong. All we need to do, he suggested, is expose the then Prime Minister, to use his terms, ““as the scoundrel that he is””. That is what it is about, and I am happy to give way to the hon. Gentleman. I see that he does not wish to intervene. The right hon. and learned Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Mr. Howard) said that we need to get on with this to expose the Labour party before the next election.