Unity urged over Iraq inquiry demand

Scotland's first minister has urged political consensus in demanding that the long-awaited report into the Iraq war be published as soon as possible.

The inquiry by Sir John Chilcot was set up in 2009 and took evidence from its last witness in 2011.

However, there have been prolonged discussions over the disclosure of secret documents.

Nicola Sturgeon has written to all Scottish party leaders urging them to unite in seeking publication.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said his party was pushing for the government to release the report within one week of receiving it.

The Chilcot Inquiry was commissioned by the previous government at Westminster to investigate the background to Britain's involvement in the Iraq war, which began in 2003 when Tony Blair was prime minister.

There have been growing calls for the findings to be made public before the general election in May.

Ms Sturgeon wants all Scottish political parties to call for publication of the Chilcot report as quickly as possible

In the past week, a cross-party group of MPs secured a Commons debate on the issue which will take place on 29 January.

In June last year, Sir John announced he was satisfied that the "gist" of talks between Tony Blair and former US President George Bush could be made public, removing a major obstacle to publication of his report.

He then intended to write to those who were to be criticised to give them an opportunity to respond before publication.

Mr Blair has previously said he wanted the Chilcot report to be published as soon as possible and that he "resented" claims he was to blame for its slow progress.

'Lessons learnt'

UK government ministers have conceded that if the final report is not completed by the end of February, it would be wrong to release it in the heat of a closely-fought election campaign.

BBC Scotland's political editor Brian Taylor said the first minister's call for political leaders in Scotland to unite on the issue of publication was an initiative "designed to embarrass the Labour party".

In response to Ms Sturgeon's letter, Scottish Lib Dem leader Mr Rennie said: "We agree with Nicola Sturgeon. It is important that the lessons learnt from the Chilcot report are learnt whilst there are people involved in Parliament who are in a position to answer for their actions.

"It has been over five years since the Iraq Inquiry began taking oral evidence. The publication of the report has been long awaited.

"Politicians from all parties across the UK must push for these findings to be finally brought into the light."

Unity urged over Iraq inquiry demand

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