CLOSED IRAQ INQUIRY ‘TOTALLY INADEQUATE’

PRIVATE SESSIONS WILL NOT PROVIDE THE ANSWERS SO BADLY NEEDED

SNP Westminster Leader and Defence Spokesperson, Angus Robertson MP, has branded the UK Government’s inquiry into the war in Iraq in closed session as “totally inadequate” and warned that it will not provide the answers so badly needed.

The SNP have led demands for an inquiry into the Iraq war, and secured the first substantive debate in October 2006 – at that time the vote was narrowly lost by just 25 votes – with 12 Labour rebels. It was backed by all Tories and Liberal Democrats.

Mr Robertson said:

“As he reinvented himself last week, Gordon Brown told us he was committed to transparency in government. Today, the doors he was so keen to open have been slammed shut in the faces of our service personnel, the families who lost loved ones in Iraq, those people who protested against the war, and all of us who are paying for it.

“The claim that the war was about weapons of mass destruction was a blatant lie, a mere cover story unsupported by the facts, which has cost the lives of thousands of civilians and hundreds of our brave soldiers. The timing and scope of this inquiry all point to a desperate Government and a Prime Minister making a cynical attempt to boost his faltering leadership.

“We must learn the lessons from the worst UK Foreign policy decision in living memory and this can only be done through a full and open investigation - that this inquiry will take place in private is totally outrageous and entirely inadequate.

“The SNP have been pressing for years on this issue, and will continue to push until the full story about the events which led to the war in Iraq and the conflict itself are known.”

Osborne sets out plans for EU spending transparency

George Osborne has launched a new transparency drive ahead of the European elections taking place this Thursday.

The Shadow Chancellor promised to “shine a spotlight on where our money goes” in Europe.

And he outlined a series of measures which build on the transparency initiatives already announced by our MEP candidates:

• Transparency on the cost of Britain’s contributions to the EU, with the cost of transfers to the UK published at each Budget
• Transparency for EU spending administered by the UK government, and a push for more spending transparency across the EU as a whole
• Real accountability for EU budgets, with Conservative MEPs continuing to refuse to approve the EU accounts until they have been signed off by the auditors
• Transparency for MEPs’ and Commissioners’ expenses, including the British EU Commissioner, with all expense claims published online

George promised that no longer would "British taxpayer's money (disappear) into a Brussels black hole”:

“We will have a right to know: how much money we're giving to Europe; where it's being spent; and that the accounts show it's not being lost in fraud. And we're going to make sure that Britain's top Eurocrat and MEPs set an example to the rest of them by publishing their expenses."