SDLP Foyle MP Mark Durkan has said it is clear that the invasion of Iraq was based on ‘a false premise and a false promise’ – and that the Chilcot report shows there was duplicity in the government’s overall presentation on this to the public and Parliament.
Strongly criticising Tony Blair’s decision to go to war, Mr Durkan also echoed the former PM’s remark ahead of signing the Good Friday Agreement by saying that “the hand of history should be feeling someone’s collar!”
Addressing Prime Minister David Cameron during yesterday’s House of Commons debate on the Iraq inquiry, Mr Durkan said: “Those of us who come to the report scandalised anew by the duplicity of presentation and the paucity of preparation on such grave matters must nevertheless remember most those who are acutely burdened today by their cruel sense of futility of sacrifice in terms of lives lost, lives devastated and lives changed.
“The Prime Minister has rightly emphasised that lessons need to be learnt, but we must be careful not to turn the report into a greywash by converting it into a syllabus about foresight in government and oversight in Parliament.
“This is not a day for soundbites, but does the Prime Minister not agree that the hand of history should be feeling someone’s collar?”
David Cameron replied that he thought “there’s a huge amount to learn and I think everyone who has played a part in it has to take their responsibility for it”.
