Brown faces Chilcot inquiry before election
Updated on 22 January 2010
Gordon Brown bows to political pressure by agreeing to give evidence to the Chilcot inquiry into the war in Iraq before the general election. Cathy Newman reports.
The inquiry chairman, Sir John Chilcot, had been concerned to avoid being caught up in party politics.
But Mr Brown is now likely to appear some time in late February or early March - and that could be just weeks before voters go to the polls.
Gordon Brown relived painful memories of the second world war with holocaust survivors today. But he is now being forced to recall his role in much more recent military action when he appears at the Iraq war inquiry.
The prime minister's political opponents say they have outmanoeuvred him. He had originally wanted the inquiry to be held in private – it is now public.
Read the letters between Gordon Brown and Sir John Chilcot
- Letter from Gordon Brown to Sir John Chilcot, 19 Jan 2010
- Letter from Sir John Chilcot to Gordon Brown, 21 Jan 2010
- Letter from Gordon Brown to Sir John Chilcot, 22 Jan 2010
- Blog: Brown appearance overshadows Treasury evidence
- Sir John Chilcot's statement in full
A former member of the cabinet told me it was a "disaster" for the Labour that people were being reminded of the government's failings over Iraq in the run-up to the election. He said the public was now being treated to the spectacle of serving cabinet ministers trying to avoid responsibility for what happened.
If Gordon Brown adopts the same approach, the risk is that he will further undermine trust in his party.
Alastair Campbell last week told the inquiry that, as chancellor, Gordon Brown was one of the key ministers on the Iraq war. Yet he has made very few public pronouncements on it.
While cabinet colleagues reflect ruefully that Gordon Brown went out of his way to absent himself from difficult decisions over the conflict, they believe Sir John will take an interest in the decisions he did make on the financing of the war.
Former defence secretary Geoff Hoon this week laid bare tensions between the Treasury and the MoD over money for equipment.
But the top official at the Treasury denied the MoD had been starved of resources, though he admitted expenditure had to be reined in after the invasion.
The main conflict between the Treasury and the MoD came after Iraq. A former cabinet minister said negotiations over proper equipment for troops in Afghanistan were "as tricky as it gets".
But that is well outside the remit of the Chilcot inquiry.
