Set a date to publish report, Chilcot panel professor tells boss

ONE of the most senior figures i n the Chilcot Inquiry last night backed calls for a ‘definite timetable’ on publishing the long-overdue report into the Iraq War.

Sir Lawrence Freedman, one of three panellists working alongside Sir John Chilcot, also admitted that he would never have accepted the job if he had known how long it would take.

The history professor said he shared the ‘frustrations’ of the families of British soldiers who died in the conflict.

Last week, 29 grieving families launched unprecedented legal action in a bid to force publication by December.

But despite growing anger at the delays, the chairman and his entire panel failed to turn up at the inquiry’s Westminster office yesterday. The Daily Mail tracked down all three panellists to their London homes.

Sir Lawrence, 66, said he had just returned to his Wimbledon home from a family holiday.

Sir Roderic Lyne, 67, was seen walking towards his millionpound Richmond home.

Baroness Prashar, 67, returned home to Worcester Park after lunchtime.

Sir Lawrence dismissed claims Sir John is on holiday and said he was still working – but the chairman was not seen entering the office yesterday.

The examination of the reasons why Britain took part in the disastrous 2003 invasion of Iraq has so far cost the taxpayer £10million and lasted more than six years.

Sir John is paid £790 per day and the rest of the panellists are paid £565.

Reg Keys, whose son Lance Corporal Thomas Keys was killed by an Iraqi mob in 2003, said the fact the panel were not in the office was an ‘insult’.

‘When those British troops and my son went to Iraq they weren’t working part-time,’ he added. ‘They gave their lives to a full-time commitment. The inquiry should do likewise.

‘Given the public outcry, they should have been there at 9am on the doorstep this morning.’

Rose Gentle of Glasgow, whose 19-year-old son Gordon was killed while serving with the Royal Highland Fusiliers in Iraq in 2004, said: ‘You’d think the pressure they have been put under would inspire them to turn up to work.’

The delays have been blamed on the controversial process of ‘ Maxwellisation’, i n which those who are criticised in the report are notified and allowed to respond before publication.

Sir Lawrence said: ‘It’s not a full-time job and doesn’t have full-time pay. I’m going into the office on Wednesday and Thursday.’

When asked about the delays, he admitted they were ‘frustrating’ and a ‘definite timetable was needed’. Asked if he knew the inquiry would take so long, he said: ‘No, of course I didn’t. I wouldn’t have got involved if I did.’

Sir Roderic declined to comment and no one answered Baroness Prashar’s door.

An inquiry spokesman said a timetable for publication would be provided once the Maxwellisation process was complete.

‘I wouldn’t have got involved’

SEVEN days after lawyers for 29 families of the fallen wrote to the chairman of the Iraq War inquiry, begging him to get a move on with his report, no trace of Sir John Chilcot has been found.

Not a line of acknowledgment has he personally offered the bereaved, while neither he nor any member of his panel turned up for work at the inquiry’s office yesterday.

Indeed, the only reaction has been a spokesman’s statement, blandly assuring the families that the inquiry team understands their anguish and the need to publish ‘as soon as possible’.

But as for when this would be, it offered no clue, adding: ‘ Sir John and his colleagues have worked, and will continue to work, throughout the summer.’

Yet when the Mail tracked down Sir John’s three fellow panel members yesterday none showed any sign of pressing on with the job, let alone any sense of urgency.

Just back from holiday, historian Sir Lawrence Freedman frankly admitted he would be in the office for only two days this week. Tellingly, even he said he was ‘frustrated’ that the inquiry was still going on after six years, conceding that a ‘definite timetable was needed’ and saying he wouldn’t have taken on the task if he had known it would take so long.

So much for commitment to perhaps the most important inquiry of our time, into a war whose repercussions can be felt daily all over the world.