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Iraq Inquiry

I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak in this important debate, which is of great interest to my Glasgow constituents, the British public and the wider world. I remember that the House was told that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and that he could launch nuclear missiles at 45 minutes' notice. We were also told that he had links with al-Qaeda, but we now know that the only link was that al-Qaeda tried to kill him. We were given those reasons for going to war, but what we have learned since then has proved our fears and concerns right. I remember attending an anti-war rally in Glasgow that was one of the biggest rallies in the history of Scotland; 70,000 people participated in it, and they were all angry. They all felt that the war was unnecessary, unjustified and probably illegal. I also saw more than 1 million people marching on the streets of London, opposing the war. The inquiry must answer the question: why did the British public better understand the crisis and get it right, while our Government got it so wrong, despite having access to both UK and US intelligence services reports, on top of several UN reports, including the investigation by the respected Hans Blix? The inquiry must help to answer the unanswered questions raised during the years of the war. It must be an inquiry unlike any conducted before, with full access to all Government papers and the ability to call any witness. Crucially, it should be fully independent of the Government, and its remit should cover more than just the period of conflict; it should also cover the periods that led up to it and followed on from it. I welcome the indication from the Prime Minister that that will be the case. The proposed inquiry has been severely criticised on the grounds of timeliness, committee membership, and transparency. With regard to timeliness, although the committee is not due to report back for a whole year, I firmly believe that a job as large as the one that it has been tasked with is not something that we can afford to rush into. After all, we have already seen the terrible consequences of having rushed into the war. I am sure that no one will argue that it is in the interests of the House or the public that the committee should be hindered in any way while conducting as detailed and as accurate a report on the Iraq war as is possible, least of all by having unnecessary time constraints imposed on its work. With it initially having been proposed that the inquiry should take place entirely in private, it is the issue of transparency that has attracted the most debate, both within and outside the House. I accept that it is difficult to strike a balance between the interests of transparency on the one hand and national security on the other. None the less, I share the concerns of hon. Members on both sides of the House who have called for a presumption in favour of proceedings of the inquiry being held in an open and public manner. The inquiry represents a vital opportunity for the people of Britain to come to terms with one of the biggest foreign policy mistakes made in their name—an opportunity that we simply cannot afford to miss. Crucially, the inquiry should not only highlight our interests, but show a genuine interest in the well-being of the Iraqi people. It is not enough to analyse what went wrong during the war, nor is it enough to report on its aftermath. The only way for so detailed an inquiry to be truly beneficial to this House is for it to include recommendations on the various ways that we as a nation can help to improve the living standards of ordinary Iraqi citizens. The inquiry must look at the huge humanitarian problems created, such as the millions of refugees who were forced to flee to neighbouring countries, the terrible human rights abuses that occurred in Abu Ghraib and the alleged cases of extraordinary rendition. I cannot stress how important it is for all those issues to be investigated as part of the inquiry. We cannot allow them to overshadow all the good that has been done in Iraq with regard to humanitarian assistance, infrastructure and economic projects, and, most importantly, democratic government for its people. I welcome the debate today brought by the Opposition, but they should also be asking serious questions of themselves. Although I recognise that it was a Labour Government who took us into war, let us be under no illusion that while 139 Labour MPs opposed the war, the Tories almost unanimously supported it. The Leader of the Opposition has already stated that, even knowing what he knows today, he would still have gone to war with Iraq. The motion alone will not hide their complicity in the conflict. The inquiry must also look into the so-called special relationship between the UK Government and the Bush Administration—a relationship that made us look like we were blindly following Bush into a conflict on which he had already made up his mind. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Justice once said on the issue of terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction that our answers to these threats will determine the stability of the world for years to come, and he was right. Those choices have affected the world and will no doubt continue to do so, as this war will be remembered by all as having been waged without just cause, against the wishes of the international community, particularly the Muslim world. There is no doubt that one of the consequences of going to war is an increased risk of terrorism, the effects of which we have already seen in our country with the 7/7 bombings. The inquiry must help to break the propaganda used by radical groups to incite hatred against Britain and British people. The inquiry must be an opportunity for the Government to show that they recognise their mistakes, that they are willing to apologise for them and, most importantly, that they have learned the lessons. The fear that many opponents of the war will have is that the inquiry will again be some kind of whitewash. The inquiry must begin to rebuild the trust and respect of the British people in the Government, and the trust and respect that we once held in the international community.