MP: Free legal help for Iraq inquiry ‘must stop’

MINISTERS, officials and military chiefs facing censure by the Iraq War inquiry should be barred from receiving hundreds of thousands of pounds’ worth of taxpayer-funded legal advice, a senior Conservative MP has said.

Sir John Chilcot’s Iraq inquiry has taken six years and there is still no timetable for its publication.

Those facing criticism in the report are entitled to reply, under a process known as Maxwellisation, and can claim free legal advice at the expense of the taxpayer, a process that is being blamed for the delays. David Davis, a Tory MP, said: “There are two groups of people who are suffering most from these inordinate delays of Chilcot: one group are the families of the dead who are being denied closure and the other group are the ordinary taxpayers who are being denied an answer as to the causes of the war.

“It seems ridiculous that the second group – the taxpayers – are also having to pay the cost of this answer being delayed ad infinitum.

“Surely the reasonable action for the Government to take now is to say ‘there should be a limit in time and money on what can be spent on government lawyers to allow this inordinate delay to continue’.”

A No 10 spokesman said: “This is an independent inquiry and as such Maxwellisation, publication and timing are a matter for Sir John.”