Nationalist MP: Chilcot Report delay outrageous

DELAYS to the £10 million Chilcot Inquiry Report into the 2003 Iraq invasion have the potential to become an “international embarrassment with no credibility”, an SNP MP has claimed.

Brendan MacNeil’s remarks came as he prepares to lead a Commons debate today which will highlight what many MPs believe is the intolerable hold ups in publishing the UK Governmentcommissioned report.

It is due to be made public this June or July, seven years after the inquiry began and 13 years after the US-led invasion of Iraq aimed at toppling the corrupt regime of Saddam Hussein. Next week, the report is due to be vetted by the security services.

Commenting before the debate, the Western Isles MP, the SNP’s deputy foreign affairs spokesman, said: “The Iraq War was a foreign policy catastrophe that had a devastating impact on many families across the UK, Iraq and internationally. The delay in publication of the Chilcot Report is outrageous.”

He went on: “There always seems to be a reason to push it back – Christmas, an election, a referendum – with credibility of the final report increasingly being diminished.

“Instead of eventually clearing up why we invaded Iraq illegally, it now has the potential to become an international embarrassment; it is almost as if the Westminster establishment is trying to brush it under carpet and that is intolerable.”

Mr MacNeil said the Iraq inquiry was demanded because people wanted answers and yet by the time the report was published it would have been 13 years since the “immoral war” had been waged.