10 March 2005

Dear Tony

Unfortunately, I was not able to be at Prime Minister’s questions yesterday, but I have read your words with astonishment.  I am afraid you have mis-remembered the Cabinet meeting attended by the Attorney General.  At that meeting, the text of what we understood to be the Attorney’s advice was distributed around the table.  The Attorney started to read it out, but did not complete the reading because Cabinet members were able to read it more quickly for themselves.  No questions or discussion was allowed and none took place.  I attempted to ask questions but was not permitted to do so.  You have misled the House of Commons about this meeting.  I presume this is inadvertent, but the record can be checked by asking the Cabinet Secretary and other notetakers to check their record of the meeting.  The Ministerial Code lays down that if any Minister inadvertently misleads the House of Commons the record must be put right as soon as possible.  I assume you will arrange to do this.

The attendance of the Attorney General at the Cabinet does not obviate the requirement of the Ministerial Code under paragraphs 22 and 23 that “when advice from the Law Officers is included in the correspondence between Ministers, or in papers for the Cabinet or Ministerial Committees, the conclusions may if necessary be summarised, but if this is done, the complete text of the advice must be attached.”  I have copied to you my complaint to the Attorney General under the Ministerial Code.  This is a very serious matter.  My complaint is that his failure to provide full details of his advice to the Cabinet misled the Cabinet and thus helped to obtain support for military action improperly.  Clearly, given your remarks in the Commons yesterday, you shared responsibility for this breach of the Ministerial Code.

I should be grateful to know how you intend to clear this matter up.  It goes to the heart of the integrity of our constitutional arrangements.  If Ministers can get away with misleading parliament in this way then there are no standards of integrity left.

I am copying this letter to Tam Dalyell and Elfyn Llwyd and making it available on my website.

Yours sincerely

Clare Short