Chilcot said Iraq inquiry 'unprecedented in scale'

THE EVENTUAL scale of the £10m Iraq war inquiry was far greater than Sir John Chilcot had anticipated as he justified its long delay to bereaved families last night.
Sir John Chilcot. David Cheskin/PA WireSir John Chilcot. David Cheskin/PA Wire
Sir John Chilcot. David Cheskin/PA Wire

The report’s findings will be released at 11 am after a seven year delay and Sir John will give a statement explaining the decision making behind Britain’s role in the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown launched the inquiry in 2009 and among the 100 witnesses were Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair, Dr Hans Blix, the UN’s weapons inspector, Mr Blair’s director of communications Alistair Campbell and Elizabeth Wilmshurst, a foreign office civil servant who gave legal advice to former foreign secretary Jack Straw.

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The inquiry looked at 150,000 documents and today a number of them will be released to the public today including cabinet discussions and the British Government’s discussions with other heads of state - the type of material usually restricted under the Government’s 30-year-rule.

Sir John said: “It’s turned out to be on an unprecedented scale. There is no doubt that it’s taken a lot longer than the government which set us up expected, or indeed what we expected at the start, but to get to the bottom of what happened over a nine year period with all the legal, military, diplomatic, and intelligence aspects of it has proved very great.”

The inquiry is likely to highlight several people today whose behaviour and decision making deserve criticism, however Mr Blair is not due to face further action from the International Criminal Court, as they said the decision to go to war was beyond their remit.

However the actions of individual solders during the war could be investigated in the future.

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Some in the Labour party are bracing themselves for Jeremy Corbyn, who voted against he invasion of Iraq, and campaign group Momentum to seize upon the report to demarcate the current leadership from Blairism and New Labour.

There will also be significant calls for Mr Blair to justify his actions publicly from the Lib Dems and Scottish National Party.

It is likely Mr Blair will break his long silence and give a comprehensive interview on his reaction to the report, which he has seen in advance.

MP for Haltemprice and Howden, David Davis, has previously said that the Maxwellisation of the report, whereby those criticised are given time to respond to findings, had been an “excruciatingly long process” and had been in part responsible for the long delays.

The Government has said it will review this process.