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Iraq Inquiry

The hon. Gentleman knows other Labour Members better than I do, and on this occasion I am willing to bow to his judgment as to exactly what their motives may be. There is widespread concern about the narrowness of the membership of the committee, and particular concern about the lack of military representation. My right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Kensington and Chelsea (Sir Malcolm Rifkind) hit the nail on the head when he said that there must be someone with senior military experience in order to have credibility with the military and beyond, and my right hon. Friend the Member for East Hampshire (Mr. Mates) echoed that point in his speech. The committee is, after all, looking into a war—its conduct, its manning and equipment, and the tactics employed. It will also have to look at the interaction between our war-fighting capability and our reconstruction capability. If it has no senior military membership, how can it fully interpret the military evidence given to it? For example, we have had inquests into the deaths of service personnel that have put the blame on the late procurement of body armour. The inference was that that occurred late because the Secretary of State at the time did not want to send a political signal that the Government had already decided to embark on war in Iraq. Few more serious charges than that can be levelled at a Minister or Government. Those issues will have to be dealt with very clearly and forensically in the inquiry, because we need to learn lessons as we are still at war in Afghanistan. Let me give the House one other example. There are lessons that we need to learn from the events that led up to Operation Charge of the Knights in Basra about how we handled intelligence and how it was interpreted. To summarise, those who were there say that, ultimately, the decision was that we were "in Palermo, not Beirut"; in other words, we were dealing with criminality rather than insurgency. We know, however, that the intelligence coming upwards was that it was an Iranian-inspired, religious-driven insurgency, so how did we come to the conclusion that we reached? How did we get ourselves into that corner? Was it the result of a failure to interpret intelligence? If so, we must be very concerned about that for Afghanistan. Or was there in any way some interference with the process, so that the conclusion that was reached was the one that was most favourable to the Government at the time? These are very serious questions, because they affect the well-being of our armed forces currently in theatre. My right hon. Friend the Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Mr. Duncan Smith) made an impassioned plea for there to be one or more political figures on the committee. As he said, it was politicians in this House who voted to go to war in Iraq, so we are intrinsically involved by our own actions and decisions. It would at the least be of benefit to have senior figures on the committee who understand how government works and how decisions are taken, if the committee is to make a proper evaluation of the evidence. We were told that no MPs would be on the committee because we would be partisan. As my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond, Yorks (Mr. Hague) said in his opening speech, the members who have been named already are hardly disinterested bystanders. Sir Lawrence Freedman has written extensively on the war in Iraq, and Sir Roderic Lyne has not only commentated on the war but was involved in the efforts to secure a second United Nations resolution ahead of the war. These are not non-partisan, disinterested figures. If they are not, why are Members of Parliament being excluded from the process, when we are the ones who carry the can for the decision that was taken by the vote? There was a lot of debate about whether we should have an interim report, and there is a widespread belief that the timing of that report is designed to minimise adverse comment about current or former Labour Ministers during a general election period. As the right hon. and learned Member for North-East Fife pointed out, this Government and Prime Minister seem incapable of distinguishing between Government embarrassment and the national interest. There is no reason why we cannot have an interim report or reports, depending on how it is carried out. The House needs to be given an assurance tonight that the committee will be able to issue such reports during the course of its deliberations, if it believes that it is in the public interest to do so. The other issue that emerged today and surprised many of us was the question of apportioning blame. The Prime Minister said on 15 June:""The committee will not set out to apportion blame".—[Official Report, 15 June 2009; Vol. 494, c. 24.]" Many Members, on both sides of the House, asked, "Why not?" If a distinguished group such as that which will carry out the inquiry comes to the conclusion that political or policy failures occurred, and that individuals had culpability, by what possible sense of justice or decency could the Government set the terms of reference in a way that delivers no blame, even if blame is justified? Today the Foreign Secretary gave us a new line, when he said that the inquiry could praise or blame anyone it likes. That is another U-turn, and one for the Minister to confirm when he speaks. Two things will stick in my mind from today's debate. The first is that in a debate of such momentous importance we reached a point at which there was no Minister on the Front Bench. That was hugely disrespectful to the House on an issue on which it is trying to hold the Government to account. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, from the opening speech by my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond, Yorks, a single common thread has run through the debate. It was well expressed by the hon. Member for Cannock Chase and it echoed from Carmarthen, Billericay and Torridge and West Devon. It was that this House should have ownership of the terms of reference of this inquiry, not the Prime Minister. That point cut across party politics and it gave voice to a growing belief that this House has been neutered by Executives of both colours over a period of time. This should be a preliminary debate, because we should have a commitment that we will have a further opportunity to discuss this issue on a substantive motion setting out the terms of reference of the inquiry. Whether that commitment is forthcoming or not will determine not only whether many Labour Members will vote for the motion, but whether the Prime Minister's much trumpeted transparency is real. Or has he learned nothing from the serial own goals that seem to be the hallmark of his premiership?