Government and Tories must apologise for Iraq

Following Gordon Brown's recent announcement that British troops will be withdrawn from Iraq Hinckley and Bosworth Liberal Democrats have called on local Labour and Tory MPs to apologise for supporting the war.

Michael Mullaney, Liberal Democrat parliamentary spokesman for Bosworth said "This was the single worst foreign policy decision for the last 50 years.

"It is time the Government and the Conservatives held up their hands and said sorry to the British people for Iraq. Including local Labour and Conservative MPs.

"The final decision to go to war in Iraq was taken by the House of Commons on March 18th 2003, it was backed by Bosworth's Conservative MP David Tredinnick and Leicester Labour MPs Keith Vaz and Patricia Hewitt. "We have paid a huge cost for our decision to cover George Bush's back: a human cost, the cost to our standing in the world, the cost of increased terrorism, and instability in the Middle East.

"We have also paid a huge financial cost, the money spent on bombing Iraq could have been spent on improving public services here instead.

"The Prime Minister must commit to a full public inquiry into this whole disaster. The Government must not be allowed to end this war as it began it: in secrecy and misdirection.

"But we don't need an inquiry to know where the blame lies for the invasion of Iraq five and a half years ago. The Government voted for this disastrous war, Gordon Brown signed the cheques and the Tories cheered them on."