Relatives’ fury as Chilcot says: Wait 9 more months
Frustrated Cameron tells Sir John to hurry up
SIR John Chilcot was again accused of insulting the families of soldiers killed in Iraq after warning last night that his report into the conflict may take another nine months.
Following months of pressure to name a date, Sir John said he hoped to publish the Iraq Inquiry’s conclusions in June or July – seven years after it was set up.
David Cameron said he was ‘immensely frustrated’, and urged Sir John to speed up the process.
Tory MP David Davis told the Commons: ‘Frankly, this is an insult and a compounding of the grief of many families who lost loved ones in that war.’
Commons Speaker John Bercow said there was a ‘very real sense of anger and frustration’ among MPs at the delay.
The families criticised the ‘unacceptable’ delay, demanding an exact date and insisting that next summer was too long to wait. Their lawyers, who want a court to force publication, said Sir John had only responded because of the threat of legal action.
Tony Blair committed the Armed Forces to a war in which 179 British troops died. The subsequent inquiry, which began in July 2009, is expected to cost more than £11million.
In a letter to Mr Cameron, Sir John said he expected to finish his report in April and publish in June or July after security checks were carried out. He told the Prime Minister: ‘The very considerable size of our report means that it will take some weeks to prepare for printing and publication.
‘Elements of that work cannot commence before the text is cleared for release to the publishers after the national security checking process.
‘Once checking has been completed it should be possible to agree with you a date for publication in June or July 2016.’
But Mr Cameron pointed out that national security checking for the Saville Inquiry into Bloody Sunday took just two weeks.
The Prime Minister pledged to ensure the report was published as quickly as possible after it was given to No 10, adding: ‘I am immensely frustrated by the slowness and the amount of time it has taken.
‘I’m not frustrated on my own behalf, I’m frustrated for the mums and the dads who lost loved ones and who want to know what happened and why it happened and want to make sure that the lessons are learned.
‘I know how long people have waited, they don’t want to have to wait any longer.’
Janice Procter, 53, whose 18-yearold son Private Michael Tench was killed by a roadside bomb in 2007, said: ‘They are just dragging their heels. It is constantly hanging over our heads. He’s had all this time to publish it, all these years, and we have waited long enough. This is far too little and far too late.
‘I will always blame Blair, as he has the blood on his hands for all 179 lives.’
Rose Gentle, mother of Fusilier Gordon Gentle, 19, who was killed in Iraq in 2004, said: ‘He’s not given us a date at all. We are disappointed and we are still no further on. We wanted an exact date.
‘We were hoping for the end of the year. It is getting hard for us now. Why wait another year to put families through all this pain?’
Reg Keys, whose son Lance Corporal Tom Keys was a Royal Military Policeman killed by an Iraqi mob in 2003, said: ‘The time delay is unacceptable and not in tune with what the families are looking for. These dates are all too woolly for me. I need to move this dark cloud of Iraq away.
‘He had £12million of taxpayers’ money and ample time – he needs to thrash this out. He needs a kick up the backside to realise the magnitude of what he is dealing with.
‘I am not happy with it. This is just more dragging out.’
Matthew Jury, of the legal firm McCue and Partners, which began a legal challenge to force a publication timetable, said: ‘It’s unfortunate that the families had to bring a legal challenge for there to be some movement. But without it we may have still been waiting in 2020. While any progress is good, June or July is still too long to make them wait.
‘Moreover, Sir John has still only given an estimated date and it is astonishing that he is still not willing to commit to a deadline.
‘Like the Prime Minister, the families are rightly disappointed and expect Sir John to vastly improve on his current assurances.’
Sir John said he had been held up for 13 months by wrangling with senior civil servants over publication of correspondence between Tony Blair and former US president George W Bush.
Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood was branded ‘ Sir Cover-Up’ for his alleged role in blocking the release of sensitive documents. The process of telling those named in the inquiry what criticisms they would face – socalled Maxwellisation – has also been blamed for taking up time.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the delay was ‘beyond ridiculous’, adding: ‘I hope it is the whole story, I hope stuff hasn’t been left out of it, I hope we are not still negotiating with Tony Blair and George Bush as to what’s got to be included in that report.
‘We need to know what happened, why it happened, who made the decisions – and we never need to make these kind of catastrophic mistakes again.’
‘They are dragging
their heels’