Tories pull out of Butler probe into WMD intelligence

The Tories have walked away from Lord Butler's inquiry into the quality of intelligence in relation to Iraq's WMD, saying that the remit of the probe was "unacceptably restrictive", it has been reported today.

It was announced earlier this month that Lord Butler's inquiry would meet in secret and focus only on "systems and processes" rather than on the actions of individuals.

However, according to the BBC, the Conservative leader Michael Howard has objected to this and pulled out saying that the actions of individuals should also be examined.

The panel was to be made up of Lord Butler, Sir John Chilcot, Field Marshal Lord Inge and MPs from the three main parties. Michael Mates had been nominated to be the Conservative panel member. Following his withdrawal, Ann Taylor is the only representative from the Commons.

The Lib Dems had said that they would not participate in the inquiry immediately after the Prime Minister announced the creation of the inquiry on February 3.

Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy said that his key requirement – that that the inquiry should not only investigate the quality of intelligence, but also the judgments made by the politicians – had not been met, and so his party could not take part.

The inquiry's terms of reference are:

• to investigate the intelligence coverage available on WMD programmes of countries of concern and on the global trade in WMD, taking into account what is now known about these programmes;
• to investigate the accuracy of intelligence on Iraqi WMD up to March 2003, and to examine any discrepancies between the intelligence gathered, evaluated and used by the government before the conflict, and between that intelligence and what has been discovered by the Iraq Survey Group since the end of the conflict;
• and to make recommendations to the Prime Minister for the future on the gathering, evaluation and use of intelligence on WMD, in the light of the difficulties of operating in countries of concern.

The Butler review will most likely begin taking oral evidence around the beginning of April, and it is anticipated that a report will be presented before Parliament breaks up for the summer recess in July.

The committee added that it did not intend to issue any statements about the progress of its work until publication of its final report.

(gmcg)