Sponsored by
Angry families say inquiry was too soft on Prime Minister
THE families of soldiers killed in the Iraq war accused Gordon Brown of evading questions during his evidence to the Chilcot Inquiry and believe he should have faced a much tougher examination.
Susan Smith's son, Private Phillip Hewett, 21, died when his lightly-armoured Snatch Land Rover was blown up in Al Amarah in July 2005.
Mrs Smith, from Tamworth, Staffordshire, has campaigned to discover why more money was not spent on Army equipment so her son could have travelled in a more heavily armoured vehicle.
She watched Mr Brown give his evidence inside the inquiry chamber at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in Westminster, central London.
But she was not impressed by the Prime Minister's responses to the questions put to him.
She said: "To be honest, I found it very hard work because they never seem to answer anything.
"It becomes hard work trying to find an answer in his answers – I'm struggling to find some substance in there, and there isn't any. He's saying there's this much money here and there was that much money there. But he's not actually answering anything."
During his evidence Mr Brown expressed sadness for the deaths of the 179 British personnel killed in the conflict and later met the sister of murdered aid worker Margaret Hassan during the inquiry's lunch break.
Mrs Hassan, 59, the director of humanitarian group Care International in Iraq, was taken hostage on her way to work in Baghdad in October 2004 and shot dead just under a month later.
Her sister, Deirdre Manchanda, said the Prime Minister promised to try to assist her family in bringing her body back from Iraq so they could give her a dignified burial.
Rose Gentle's son, Fusilier Gordon Gentle, 19, was killed by a roadside bomb in Basra in June 2004.
She was scathing about Mr Brown's claim that he funded all the equipment the military asked for – and said the inquiry panel "should have hit him a lot harder".
Mrs Gentle, from Glasgow, said: "I do hold Tony Blair responsible, but at the same time Gordon Brown should hold a bit of responsibility because he held the purse strings.
"The panel should have hit him a lot harder with their questions."
Email to a friend
Print this page- Leeds lose Ward to Palace: Is there anyone they can afford now?
- Sheffield Wednesday leaving it late to hijack Leeds United over Ward
- As Snodgrass dithers over Leeds, Warnock throws a lifeline
- Ball is in Leeds United’s court over contract - Snodgrass
- Police turning blind eye to Asian voter fraud, says MP
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: East
