Iraq Inquiry

Part of Opposition Day — [14th allotted day] – in the House of Commons at 5:58 pm on 24 June 2009.

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Photo of Richard Shepherd Richard Shepherd Conservative, Aldridge-Brownhills 5:58, 24 June 2009

I agree with the burden of the arguments made by John McDonnell and the arguments that have come from all quarters of the House.

My hon. and learned Friend Mr. Cox made a compelling case as to why he should be counsel to the inquiry. I know that his bag is full and his commitments are heavy, but he enunciated a principle that is at the heart of parliamentary democracy. This is a House of debate and of a Government making reasoned arguments and, by and large, trying to win an argument. We have seen chaos over recent weeks.

My own dilemma has been reflected by others. I also voted for the war. That was against the advice of many friends in the defence industry, those who have some connections with intelligence, those who write for the newspapers, and colleagues in the House and elsewhere. Yet I disregarded their advice, because I was confronted with a Prime Minister who assured me that the war was necessary to the national interest. Why should I suspend my own judgment? I am normally the most critical of individuals. Why was I showing deference to a proposition put forward by a Prime Minister?

I am old enough to remember Eden. When I was a boy in the combined cadet force at my school, we marched when Suez happened, to show our patriotic fervour. Within months, Eden was discredited and, unfortunately, health meant that he left for the country for a longish period. In Eden, we had a Prime Minister who lied to this House, according to Edward Heath, who in a broadcast said, "He knew he had made a lie on the Floor of the House over the events surrounding Suez." Mr. Heath was asked, "What did you do?" He replied, "Well, I got on with it, didn't I?" That is what has happened to this House: too many of us get on with it. That is our duty: to support the Government with whom we were elected or the party that, as a consequence of our election, becomes the Government.

My hon. and learned Friend the Member for Torridge and West Devon is in my mind, but was it not Denning who said, "However mighty the citizen, the law is mightier still"? That is what is behind the construction of the proposition before us—constructed not by this House, incidentally, but by the Executive on the advice of Whitehall, presumably. The Government's proposition is designed to ensure that no one can be found culpable and suffer the consequences of—how shall we put it?—misadvising whatever committee comes into existence.

Perjury is an awful threat, and the consequences of perjury are dramatic. A Cabinet Minister from this House perjured himself and went to prison. That is the jeopardy if anyone should mislead a properly founded inquiry with an oath sworn on it and the prospect of retribution if candour is not employed before its inquisitors. That concept is terribly important.

We can see how the central question of the oath is dealt with on the Order Paper, and others have adequately referred to it. The Government's proposition is almost derisory. Its proposers, including the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary, want

"the chairman of the inquiry to consult party leaders and chairs of the relevant parliamentary committees on the scope for taking evidence".

From the Order Paper, one of the central questions for the Secretary of State is: what is that "scope" for taking an oath? Ministers must have questioned, and been advised on, that central proposition, but earlier we saw the Foreign Secretary, in that wonderful, elegant and nonchalant way, dance away from the question—all the time. It was about the scope, and people should inquire, ask around and find out. The Government do not know? Of course they know. Those are the deceits that follow from propositions that are foisted upon this House by the Executive on the advice of Whitehall. I have no idea what the advice in Whitehall was, but I do not doubt that Whitehall would have asked itself the question and advised the Government that the decision about whether evidence would be on oath or not had implications.

That is why this matter is a struggle for this Chamber—we, as elected representatives of the people, checking and holding to account a Government. Since I voted for the war, I have noted and shared some of the emotions of other Members. Events have moved on, and we have had the inquiry into the circumstances of the death of Dr. Kelly. What a revelation! There were all the e-mails. Who were they from? Alastair Campbell to John—now, Sir John—Scarlett, the head of intelligence. The Prime Minister's special adviser also said that the contents of one memorandum—the dodgy memorandum—did not seem to lead to the conclusion. What conclusion? The conclusion to go to war. It was altered. We know that from the Hutton inquiry and from the silence of the Foreign Office—the dog that did not bark in the night. There are no e-mails coming from the now Lord Chancellor—the lord high panjandrum—to inquire about intelligence. There is MI6, too. What about the Ministry of Defence, the Department at which the former Chief Whip of the Labour party was then Secretary of State? The defence intelligence unit was querying what the single source was.

Here am I, having taken the word of a British Prime Minister, seeing unravel the very props with which I reinforced my vote. I want to know, in a proper and full inquiry, the circumstances surrounding how we went to war. I want to be able to reconcile in my mind the contradictions between, "I know nothing about the circumstances surrounding the death of Dr. Kelly," and, "I am responsible for all these matters." That was the then Prime Minister in front of Hutton and in conversation on an aeroplane. When I asked the then Prime Minister about the issue on the Floor of the House, he said, "Oh! We must wait until the outcome of the Hutton inquiry." Did Hutton answer the question? Did he reconcile the two seemingly contradictory statements? Not a bit of it.

I want an inquiry, as does every Member who is really serious about the business of the House and our representative function. It should explicitly look into the matters of concern affecting a matter of great public policy—going to war. As the Prime Minister tolls out the lives of others who have been sent to Iraq, we are tolling our own bell. We need no servants to inquire; we should be the dynamic in the process of establishing the appropriate form for an inquiry.