Govt Beats Tory Iraq Inquiry Motion

The Government has comfortably beaten a Tory motion to revise its proposals for the Iraq inquiry following a number of concessions.

Earlier, Gordon Brown's spokesman said the Prime Minister would be willing to give evidence to the inquiry in public.

Ahead of the Opposition Day debate, his spokesman said: "If those considerations concerning national security our met, then of course the Prime Minister would have no difficulty in giving evidence in public."

During the debate, Foreign Secretary David Miliband conceded the inquiry would
be able to apportion blame for what happened when it draws up its final report.

In a further concession to widespread criticism of the way the inquiry was set up, Mr Miliband said it would be able to "praise or blame whoever it likes".

In his initial statement announcing the inquiry last week, Mr Brown told MPs its role would be to establish what lessons could be learned from the conflict and not to blame anyone for it.

He has already been forced to give ground and accept that evidence sessions will be held in public, having originally announced that they would be conducted behind closed doors.

Opening the debate, Mr Miliband told the Commons it was still the Government's intention that it would not be a full judicial inquiry and would not be able to establish criminal or civil liability.

But, pressed by Conservative former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind on the question of apportioning blame, he said: "It can praise or blame whoever it likes. It is free to write its own report at every stage."

Mr Miliband also denied that the Government originally opted for closed hearings because of Tony Blair's unwillingness to give evidence in public.

The former Prime Minister was reported to have urged Mr Brown to conduct the inquiry in private.

But Mr Miliband said Mr Blair told a question and answer session last night: "There is no problem for me answering questions in public."