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 05 July 2008 03:44 BST

Hague leads Tory call for fresh inquiry into Iraq war

Tuesday, 25 Mar 2008 19:34
William Hague says "now is the right time" for independent inquiry into Iraq war
The shadow foreign secretary William Hague has led a new call from the Conservative party for an independent inquiry into the Iraq war.

The prime minister Gordon Brown has said an inquiry will be held into the invasion and occupation of Iraq will be held "when it is appropriate" but that beginning proceedings now would be a diversion for British troops stationed in the region.

However, Mr Hague says "now is the right time" as five years have now passed since the beginning of the conflict and "six or seven years" since key decisions were made.

Speaking on GMTV, the former Conservative leader said: "I think unless we start an inquiry now, the memories will have faded, the files will have gone astray, the emails will have been erased.

"There does come a point where you do have to get on with it."

Mr Hague's call for an inquiry came as the Liberal Democrat launched a new website, www.holdthemtoaccount.com, which seeks to pinpoint the MPs who supported the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Ed Davey, the party's foreign affairs spokesman, said the Conservative call for an inquiry was "like Ronnie Biggs wanting an inquiry into the great train robbery".

"It is flattering that the Conservatives have come round to our long-held belief that there must be a full inquiry into the war as soon as possible," he added.

"However, it would have greater strength if they admitted the key role they had in letting this disastrous decision be made in the first place."

Jack Straw, the justice secretary, confirmed the prime minister's earlier comments and said a "very substantial inquiry" into intelligence failures prior to the war.

Speaking to the Today programme, he continued: "What is more important even than an inquiry is that the troops who are on the ground - there are still 4,100 British troops in harms in Iraq - should not themselves be distracted by what would inevitably and understandably be a very significant argument about whether it is right or wrong for them to be present."

And Mr Straw said he was "astonished" by Mr Hague's claim that important files would be deleted, adding: "That's a very thin argument. No files are going to disappear. No e-mails are going to be erased." End of story


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