By Dipankar De Sarkar, IANS,
London: British Premier Gordon Brown Friday signalled his readiness to face an Iraq war inquiry before upcoming general elections in Britain despite claims his appearance could skew the results of the poll.
Brown is “keen to take up the opportunity to state the case about why Britain was right to take the action it did in respect to Iraq,” his spokesman said Friday.
Sir John Chilcot, a former senior civil servant conducting the inquiry, said the prime minister will testify “within the next two months.”
Elections are due in Britain by early June, but expected to be held in May, and Brown has come under increasing pressure from his political rivals to appear before the inquiry, which opened in November last year.
As Britain’s finance minister when the Labour government ordered the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Brown “signed the cheques,” alleged Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg.
Tony Blair, who was prime minister at the time and quit in 2007 partly over mounting British casualties in Iraq, is expected to give evidence next week.
Brown’s office said the British prime minister had “nothing to hide” – Brown has claimed in recent weeks that while he supported the war, he thought post-war planning was inadequate.
With popular opposition to the Iraq War having led to the early exit of Blair, there is speculation over the possible political fallout of Brown’s appearance just before elections that are expected to be closely fought.
Chilcot said he is determined not to allow the inquiry to be used as a “platform for political advantage by any party.”
But Clegg, whose party opposed the war at the time, said Thursday: “It is well known that the prime minister (Brown) was a key figure in Britain’s decision to invade Iraq.”
“It is only right that Gordon Brown should explain his role in this disastrous foreign policy failure before asking the British people for their vote,” Clegg added.