John Baron

Conservative Party | Billericay and District

John Baron MP calls for full public inquiry during Iraq debate

25 June 2009

MP says only public hearings will get to truth over 45 minutes claim.

Yesterday, John Baron MP spoke in the Iraq debate and voted in support of a Conservative Motion in Parliament calling for the new Iraq Inquiry to be held in public with a wider membership than that suggested by the Government. The vote followed news that key evidence could be given behind closed doors and not on oath. The minor parties and some Labour back benchers supported the Tory motion, but the Government won the vote 299-260.

John said:

"The anger many people still feel about the way we were misled into an illegal war can only be addressed by a full inquiry taking evidence in public and on oath with a power to summon witnesses and papers. Anything less is destined to be yet another whitewash. This is our last chance to get it right."

"On key issues such as how the discredited 45 minutes claim came to be included in the Iraq dossier, the Government has a track record of hiding behind secret evidence sessions and exemptions from Freedom of Information. We know that spin doctors were involved but still do not know who or why."

"This new Inquiry must do what previous inquires failed to do and address how our entire political system failed to check the deluded ambitions of Tony Blair to go to war, and how his Government got away with exaggerating the level of threat to this country from Iraq's WMD."