Gordon Brown's decision to hold the Iraq inquiry in secret "looked awful", a senior Labour MP has admitted.

Tooting MP Sadiq Khan, a Transport Minister who attends Cabinet, appeared to signal a major U-turn when he said the inquiry may be held in public after all.

The Prime Minister has announced plans for an inquiry into how and why Britain took part in Iraq war, and how the invasion and subsequent occupation was conducted.

But his announcement prompted widespread criticism when he revealed evidence would be heard in private.

Speaking on BBC One's Politics Show, Mr Khan said hearings could be held in public after all.

The decision would be made by the inquiry's chair, Sir John Chilcot, a former senior civil servant, Mr Khan said.

He insisted: "What Sir John Chilcot will do is, over the next few days, meet with the leaders of the various parties, meet with the chairs of the various select committees, and he will decide, as is his gift, how the inquiry will be held."

Asked whether the announcement that hearings would be private had looked bad, he replied:

"It looked awful. And one of the reasons was lack of understanding of what chairs of inquiries do."

Mr Khan insisted that the Prime Minister had always said Sir John would decide whether hearings should be private or not.

But this appeared to contradict the statement by the Prime Minister to the House of Commons on June 15.

Mr Brown told the Commons at the time: "This inquiry will take account of national security considerations -for example, what might damage or reduce our military capability in the future - and evidence will be heard in private.

"I believe that that will also ensure that evidence given by serving and former ministers, military officers and officials is as full and candid as possible.

"The committee will publish its findings in as full a form as possible. These findings will then be debated in the House of Commons and the House of Lords."

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Name

Website (optional)

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (registered users only)

Add Comment