Gordon Brown facing demands to go before Iraq inquiry again

Published on Monday 8 March 2010 21:42

PRIME Minister Gordon Brown is under pressure to reappear before the inquiry on the Iraq war.

Mr Brown was accused of "dissembling" by a former admiral and being "disingenuous" by an ex-general after he gave evidence on Friday.

When he appeared before the inquiry chaired by former diplomat Sir John Chilcot, Mr Brown claimed that he had never turned down a request for military spending in Iraq.

He also stated that he increased the Ministry of Defence's budget and refuted claims he had cut spending in the department.

And he attempted to pin the blame for procurement problems on MoD officials and senior military figures.

But former chief of the defence staff Lord Guthrie retorted: "He (Brown] cannot get away with saying, 'I gave them everything they asked for.' That is simply disingenuous."

Admiral Lord Boyce, another former chief of defence staff, added: "He (Brown] is dissembling, he's being disingenuous."

And the recently retired General Sir Richard Dannatt accused Mr Brown of trying to rewrite history. The attacks have led to a demand by Conservative shadow defence secretary Liam Fox to demand that the Chilcot Inquiry recalls Mr Brown.

There was no official comment from Downing Street, but Labour sources described the call as "ridiculous", adding about that the three former military chiefs "are all Tories anyway".

The row came on the day that Foreign Secretary David Miliband described the United Nations as "feeble" as he appeared before the Chilcot Inquiry.

Mr Miliband, who is seen as the Blairite candidate to replace Gordon Brown as Labour leader, gave a strong defence of the interventionist foreign policy which underpinned former prime minister Tony Blair's approach.

Mr Miliband told the Chilcot Inquiry it was important not to learn the "wrong lesson" from the conflict and to decide to leave international engagement to other countries.

He also argued that the authority of the United Nations would have been badly damaged if the UK and the US had not followed through threats to Saddam Hussein with military action.

The Foreign Secretary said there was still great debate within the UN about when it was right to intervene militarily in other countries.

"What I think is significantly up for grabs is the extent to which commitments like the responsibility to protect are going to be anything more than words on paper," he said.

Mr Miliband rejected claims the overthrow of the Iraqi regime freed Iran to back militant groups and destabilise the Middle East.