Iraq Inquiry

I will, but as the Government have, in my view improperly, made two statements on a Backbench Bus...

As someone who voted against Iraq and Libya, I can only concur with what my right hon. Friend has...

My hon. Friend makes a good point. I will refer in a moment to the Winograd commission, which pro...

Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?

If the hon. Gentleman will forgive me, I will not for the moment.

That was perhaps the unde...

By the time we get to see this report, we will be in the third Parliament during which it has bee...

No, and that is the case that I am going to explore. I will not do what the Father of the House d...

Sir Jeremy Heywood was asked two days ago whether he would approve of this House subpoenaing the ...

When the hon. Gentleman listens to what I intend to say shortly, he will realise that Sir Jeremy ...

Will my right hon. Friend allow me to intervene?

If my hon. Friend will forgive me—

I want to intervene on this—

I know, but I am making progress.

Will my right hon. Friend give way?

No.

To finish my point, if that had been the case, we might well have had the inquiry repor...

rose—

Order. I would like to suggest that Members speak for up to 10 minutes. Otherwise, we will have t...

I am pleased to follow the right hon. Member for Haltemprice and Howden (Mr Davis). I welcome the...

Is the right hon. Gentleman now going to admit something that his party and a good number of peop...

With great respect, no, and this is not the occasion to do that. I gave extensive evidence to the...

Why does my right hon. Friend think that the Chilcot inquiry adopted a convoluted Maxwellisation ...

I am afraid that the answer to that is well above my pay grade. My hon. Friend would have to ask ...

Is there not then a question as to any obstruction that might have come from the office of George...

I have no information about any of the process of declassification.

At the same time, my ho...

The idea that the Iraq inquiry could not have been held during the Iraq war was shown to be a fal...

With great respect, it was not. I have looked at the precedents. There can be inquiries in the mi...

Will my right hon. Friend give way?

I am just coming to the end.

Everyone bears a heavy responsibility for ensuring that the in...

It is a pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Blackburn (Mr Straw). He and I have sparred ...

Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?

I will not give way to the right hon. Gentleman because I know exactly what he has to say and I w...

The right hon. Gentleman and I have been involved in all the debates on Iraq. Does he recall that...

The hon. Gentleman is right—we have been debating these things for a long time. He neatly leads m...

I am pleased that my right hon. Friend is going to see Sir John Chilcot in front of the Foreign A...

That is a fair point and I will have a look at my hon. Friend’s request. I do not make a promise ...

Dead men cannot tell tales, and Dr David Kelly is not here to answer what I believe were several ...

Just for the record, I went to a secondary modern school.

But you went to an expensive university that the rest of us paid for.

The right hon. Gentle...

It is always a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Bradford West (George Galloway), who made a...

I know that my right hon. and learned Friend’s remarks will be closely followed outside the House...

Yes, my hon. Friend is right. Maxwellisation provides people with the opportunity to respond to p...

I will commit the sin of asking a question in the House to which I do not know the answer. Why is...

The terms mean one and the same thing. As with so many descriptions used in government, there is ...

As the inquiry is not a judicial one, do its findings have the legal immunity required to protect...

I can see where my hon. Friend is coming from, but his question goes into the realms of speculati...

In 2012, the right hon. and learned Gentleman was in government and he had the impression that th...

The hon. Gentleman asks me to stray into areas where I do not think I should go.

Yes you should!

No, I should not. I am mindful of my responsibilities and I want to help the House as much as I c...

It is always a great pleasure to follow the right hon. and learned Member for Beaconsfield (Mr Gr...

The right hon. Gentleman points to what I suspect will be a grave disappointment when the Chilcot...

The hon. Gentleman is right. He and I agree, as I believe does the right hon. Member for Blackbur...

I share with most Members of all parties a deep disappointment at the postponement of the release...

I am grateful to my Cumbrian colleague for giving way. Is there not a paradox at the heart of thi...

My hon. Friend and neighbour makes a very good point. In many ways, the lessons to be learned fro...

Must we not face the fact that post-Iraq, and perhaps with the decline of the imperial mindset, t...

One would hope not. One would hope that in any relationship, one good friend tells the other when...

Is that not exactly what happened in the Iraq debacle?

That is why we need Chilcot, to tell us these things. My assumption is that that is what happened...

I shall be brief, not least because I am anxious to take part in the next debate, which is very i...

The problem is not just one of administrative delay and cost, but that on this time scale of 17 y...

I agree, and that has happened time and again, leading to public cynicism. I hope that, after the...

I am appreciating the hon. Lady’s speech, but can she explain why she voted against holding an in...

As the hon. Gentleman knows, the policy at the time was to wait until the forces had withdrawn fr...

I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for Haltemprice and Howden (Mr Davis) and other ho...

My hon. Friend will have noted that I deliberately avoided the Crimea, Dardanelles and other exam...

I agree with my hon. Friend, but the other factor, which has been touched on by a number of hon. ...

The hon. Gentleman seems to be suggesting that we have reached the end of the road for inquiries....

No, I do not. I have to say, with the greatest respect to my right hon. and learned Friend the Me...

rose—

I see my right hon. and learned Friend wants to intervene.

Only to agree with my hon. Friend. I certainly do not think that these inquiries have to be led b...

I, of course, accept that from my right hon. and learned Friend. In my opinion, it is a great pit...

It is always a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Broadland (Mr Simpson), but I disagree with...

I dealt only briefly with the intervention from the hon. Member for Basildon and Billericay (Mr B...

Because they believed you and Colin Powell.

Because they were fooled. The right hon. Gentleman should recall—[Interruption.]

Order. This has been a good debate, and we do not want to spoil it. Let us continue in the manner...

The intervention was contemptible. On that point, I share the view of the hon. Member for Bradfor...

I am grateful for the chance to take part in an important debate that strikes at the heart of our...

May I suggest that the right hon. Gentleman was not persuaded by the Prime Minister, but duped by...

The question whether we were duped is exactly the reason the process of this inquiry is so import...

It was 18 March 2003, and both you and I were in the House that day, Mr Deputy Speaker. It was an...

I was not a Member of the House at that time, but my hon. Friend reminds me of the time when the ...

To try to get a flavour of what the House was like that day, I watched a YouTube video of Tony Bl...

I, too, recall that day, and I concur with everything the hon. Gentleman says about how people wh...

I am very grateful to the hon. Lady, who makes such a powerful and potent point about something a...

Is there not a danger of this debate becoming an opportunity for self-congratulation or self-lace...

I want to come on to that; it is so important because this House was misled. I do not know whethe...

It seems to me that the challenge in relation to the Chilcot inquiry is our inability in Britain ...

The hon. Gentleman has called for reflection. He may recall the reaction of the American ambassad...

I disagree with the hon. Gentleman in that I am calling for more confidence and more seriousness,...

I have got to disagree with the hon. Gentleman. Denmark was once in the empire game, but historia...

I understand absolutely that that is the hon. Gentleman’s position, but our position should be di...

I do not know whether my hon. Friend remembers this, but in 2007 or 2008, I think, there were no ...

There were absolutely no fluent Pashto speakers, and only two operational Dari speakers in our em...

I admire the hon. Gentleman, but as he is speaking I can almost see him in his pith helmet stridi...

We will get it back by being serious again. We will get it back by showing the British public tha...

rose—

Order. It will be helpful to other hon. Members if speakers restrict their remarks to about nine ...

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I was worried for a moment that you were going to come up with t...

The danger of the hon. Gentleman’s anti-imperialist rhetoric is that we are not going to come to ...

I propose a process of international law, a process of human rights engagement, a process of trut...

rose—

Order. There is now a competition to see who is the most honourable Member by sticking to nine mi...

I have no idea of the reason for the report’s delay—I do not think anyone has—but it does matter....

I do not have a military background, as is obvious if one looks at my shoes—according to my wife,...

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

I am sorry, but I just feel that to do so would be unfair on others.

I pay tribute to Lord ...

I am pleased that my hon. Friend the Member for Southend West (Sir David Amess) spoke before me a...

Who does the hon. Gentleman think took the extraordinary decision to destroy the whole of the sta...

Yes, it was Ambassador Bremer. In my paper, I wrote:

“The Bremer administration has 3,000 U...

I thank the Backbench Business Committee for facilitating this debate in my name and those of my ...

Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?

I had better not. I am sorry.

Normal processes were abandoned. We need to know what happene...

I thank the Backbench Business Committee and the right hon. Member for Haltemprice and Howden (Mr...

Does the hon. Lady not accept that the inquiry could have begun and taken evidence while troops w...

Looking back in Hansard at the debates of the time, we can see that many Members in all parts of ...

I congratulate the right hon. and hon. Members who secured this debate on the Iraq inquiry. I tha...

If the British side is not blocking any correspondence or communications records between Blair an...

As I have said, there has been no attempt by the US to block any element of the inquiry. There ha...

I am not sure whether the Minister has quite understood me. I was never under any illusion that t...

I hope that I will have time to come to that point in a moment.

Members asked why it was no...

This has been an excellent debate, with cogent and well informed arguments delivered with both pa...