Butler pledges to continue inquiry despite criticisms

Lord Butler has vowed to continue with his inquiry into the UK's WMD intelligence prior to the war in Iraq, despite both the Tories and Lib Dems withdrawing their support.

Tory leader Michael Howard withdrew his support from the inquiry yesterday, saying that Lord Butler's remit was "unacceptably restrictive". The inquiry's first press statement issued earlier this month stated that Lord Butler would focus only on "systems and processes" rather than on the actions of individuals.

However, Mr Howard's man on the panel, senior Tory MP Michael Mates, has dissented and pledged to continue his work on the inquiry. Mr Mates's decision, in flagrant disregard of his leader's wishes, will undermine Michael Howard and add weight to government attacks that the Tories had leapt upon a "passing bandwagon".

The Foreign Secretary Jack Straw dismissed the Tory move yesterday as "shameless opportunism". The Lib Dems have also rounded on Mr Howard for his u-turn, saying that the Tory leader's political credibility had been "severely damaged".

Explaining his decision in a letter sent to Downing Street yesterday, Michael Howard said that a procedural document issued by the inquiry on February 26 had repeated a reference to "structures, systems and processes", and did not include amongst its aims "an examination of the acts or omissions of individuals".

Mr Howard added: "It makes clear that it will consider such acts or omissions only in the context of its examination of structures, systems and processes. There is no basis in the terms of reference for that view and I consider it a quite unjustifiable restriction on the Committee's approach.

"After careful reflection of these matters, I have, therefore, decided with regret to withdraw my co-operation from the Butler Review."

The six-man inquiry panel was to be made up of the Whitehall mandarin 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, with Ann Taylor representing the government. When the Prime Minister announced that the inquiry was to be set up on February 3, the Lib Dems immediately said that they could not cooperate – also citing its narrow remit as cause for concern.

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 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)