Poor record-keeping cited in 'rendition' flights row

Published on Sunday 24 February 2008 21:05

A FORMER foreign secretary said yesterday that poor record-keeping could have been to blame for the late disclosure that two United States "rendition" flights transporting terrorist suspects had landed on UK soil in 2002.

Margaret Beckett, now chairman of the Commons intelligence and security committee, said when she was foreign secretary she was told by the US there was no evidence of UK airspace being used for such flights. David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, told MPs last week that previous denials by the government had been made in good faith.

Opposition parties warned the disclosure could undermine the public trust in the US-UK "special relationship".

Ms Beckett said: "One thingthat did come out from the report by the committee I now chair is that record-keeping was not all that marvellous, frankly. It was very difficult for the government to go back and look at what had happened on previous occasions."