Chilcot bullying only adds insult to injury

AFTER years of interminable delay, the saga of the £10million Chilcot Inquiry today takes an even more shameful twist.

The latest scandal centres on the response by Sir John’s team to the warning, by the families of 29 of the British servicemen killed in Iraq, that they will take legal action unless a deadline is fixed for the report’s publication. The compassionate response by Sir John would be to stop prevaricating, conclude the ‘Maxwellisation’ process – under which those criticised are invited to challenge the inquiry’s findings – and bring this six-year debacle to a close.

Instead, as we reveal on page 5, Government lawyers acting for Chilcot have threatened the anguished families that, if they proceed with their legal challenge, the inquiry will ‘seek costs’ for defending the case – estimated to be up to £30,000, or more than £1,000 each.

In comparison to the cost of the inquiry this sum may not be huge, but to the families it is a bill they can ill afford – and adds further punishing insult to injury.

The only conclusion to draw is that £790-a-day Sir John is trying to silence bereaved parents who, unlike him, do not have access to unlimited State funds.

By doing so, the shambolic Chilcot Inquiry is not only failing to deliver justice for Britain’s war dead. Equally disgracefully, it is engaging in the very worst kind of Establishment bullying.