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'Tony Blair asked for Iraq enquiry to be secret'

Source ITN

Updated on 21 June 2009

Downing Street is denying reports Tony Blair urged Gordon Brown to hold the Iraq War inquiry in secret.

It is alleged the former prime minister - who took Britain into the conflict - warned the hearings would amount to a "show trial" if they were held in public.

He is said to have communicated that view to his successor via the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Gus O'Donnell, fearing that a direct conversation would be leaked.

A spokesman for Mr Blair said: "This is a decision for the current Prime Minister, not the former one."

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said: "If this is true about Blair demanding secrecy, it is simply outrageous that an inquiry into the biggest foreign policy disaster since Suez is being muzzled to suit the individual needs of the man who took us to war - Tony Blair."

A Downing Street spokesman said: "We have always been clear that we consulted a number of people before announcing the commencement of the inquiry, including former government figures. We are not going to get into the nature of those discussions."

After announcing on Monday the inquiry would be held behind closed doors, Mr Brown was forced into a U-turn three days later.

When senior figures criticised the decision to hold hearings in private, Downing Street said inquiry chairman Sir John Chilcot would have discretion in how he conducted proceedings.

The attack was led by former PM Sir John Major, and backed by the head of the last official inquiry on the war, Lord Butler of Brockwell, and the former head of the Army General Sir Mike Jackson.

Meanwhile, Justice Secretary Jack Straw, who was Foreign Secretary at the time of the 2003 invasion, says he is happy to deliver the bulk of his evidence in public.

© Independent Television News Limited 2009. All rights reserved.

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