Chilcot report: Families and MPs react to inquiry findings
Chilcot report: Families and MPs react to inquiry findings
(about 1 hour later)
The Chilcot report has concluded that the UK went to war in Iraq in 2003 before all peaceful options for disarming leader Saddam Hussein were exhausted, and it was not a "last resort".
The Chilcot report has concluded that the UK went to war in Iraq in 2003 before all peaceful options were exhausted, and it was not a "last resort".
The families of some of the 179 servicemen and women who died in the Iraq War have been reacting to its findings.
The families of some of the 179 servicemen and women who died in the Iraq War, and politicians who took key decisions at the time, have been reacting to its findings.
The families
Roger Bacon, whose son Major Matthew Bacon was killed in Iraq in 2005
Roger Bacon, whose son Maj Matthew Bacon was killed in Iraq in 2005, called on the government to follow up the report "to ensure that the political process by which the country decides to go to war is no longer twisted and confused".
In a press conference immediately after Sir John Chilcot delivered his report, Mr Bacon said bereaved families could "call specific parties to answer for their actions in the courts".
"It has truly been an exhausting and exhaustive process," he said.
"Never again must so many mistakes be allowed to sacrifice British lives and lead to the destruction of a country for no positive end," he said,
'The pain stays'
He said he was "really pleased" with the report but it would never take away the pain of losing a son.
He told BBC Radio 5 live: "I'm really pleased with it - with what I've seen. We haven't had time to drill down but I'm impressed with what he [Sir John Chilcot] has done...
Rose Gentle's son Gordon, who was from Glasgow, was killed by a roadside bomb while serving in Basra in 2004
"It's not going to help me or my wife in dealing with the death of my son - the pain stays - but justice should be seen to be done.
Ms Gentle said she would like to look former Prime Minister Tony Blair in the eye and ask him why he had sent her son to his death.
"People need to be brought to book in one way or another. But it's not, on a personal basis, going to change anything."
"What we've been hearing and what we've been reading has been really hard and I think that's why there's a lot of mothers and fathers that have been in tears today," she said.
David Godfrey, whose grandson Daniel Coffey died in Iraq, told the BBC: "I have come to the end of a journey and the start of another one, the journey started with the loss of Daniel in Basra, Iraq, in February 2007.
"A lot of us have held it back for weeks and what's been confirmed today has really gut-wrenched a lot of us."
David Godfrey, whose 21-year-old grandson Daniel Coffey was killed in 2007
"I have come to the end of a journey and the start of another one. The journey started with the loss of Daniel in Basra, Iraq, in February 2007," said Mr Godfrey.
"The next stage of my journey started with the launch of the Chilcot inquiry report and it has been a journey of heartache and pain - not just for my family but for every other family you have seen here today."
"The next stage of my journey started with the launch of the Chilcot inquiry report and it has been a journey of heartache and pain - not just for my family but for every other family you have seen here today."
"I have to say that I do owe him [Sir John Chilcot] an apology because the report has been well laid out…
He said the report had not gone far enough.
"But the report hasn't gone far enough."
'All options'
Matthew Jury, one of the solicitors representing the families, said they had waited a long time for today and three hours was not long enough for the families to take in the report.
On whether any legal action would be taken, he said: "All options will be considered."
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair said his decision to take military action against Saddam Hussain was taken "in good faith and in what I believed to be the best interests of the country".
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair said going to war in Iraq was the "most agonising" decision he took as PM and he took full responsibility for it.
In a statement, he said: "The report should lay to rest allegations of bad faith, lies or deceit.
"There were no lies, Parliament and the Cabinet were not misled, there was no secret commitment to war, intelligence was not falsified and the decision was made in good faith", he told a press conference.
"Whether people agree or disagree with my decision to take military action against Saddam Hussein; I took it in good faith and in what I believed to be the best interests of the country...
"However, the report does make real and material criticisms of preparation, planning, process and of the relationship with the United States.
"These are serious criticisms and they require serious answers. I will respond in detail to them later this afternoon.
"I will take full responsibility for any mistakes without exception or excuse."
He said: "Above all I will pay tribute to our Armed Forces. I will express my profound regret at the loss of life and the grief it has caused the families, and I will set out the lessons I believe future leaders can learn from my experience."
Prime Minister David Cameron
Prime Minister David Cameron
Prime Minister David Cameron told MPs this was a "difficult day for all the families of those who lost loved ones" and he said Parliament would hold a full two-day debate on the Chilcot report next week.
Prime Minister David Cameron told MPs it was a "difficult day for all the families of those who lost loved ones" and he hoped bereaved relatives could find "some comfort from knowing we will never forget the incredible sacrifice".
He said he hoped relatives who lost loved ones in Iraq could find "some comfort from knowing we will never forget the incredible sacrifice".
He said "lessons must be learned" and announced two-day Commons debate next week.
Mr Cameron argued that the report would have been ready sooner if an inquiry had begun when MPs, including him, first called for it in 2006.
Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn
"Sending our brave troops onto the battlefield without the right equipment was unacceptable," he said.
Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn condemned the decision to go to war in Iraq as an "act of military aggression launched on a false pretext".
"Whatever else we learn from this conflict, we must all pledge this will never happen again."
"We now know that the House was misled in the run-up to the war and the House must now decide how to deal with it 13 years later, just as all those who took the decisions laid bare in the Chilcot report must face up to the consequences of their actions, whatever they may be," he said.
'Difficulties plain to see'
Clare Short, former International Development Secretary and member of the then Labour government
He said that MPs from all sides of the House who voted for the Iraq War "have to take our fair share of the responsibility. We cannot turn the clock back".
Ms Short, who resigned over the war, said it was a "damning" report: "I tried very hard... to hold on to Tony Blair's ankles and he might hold on to Bush and we might find a better way of dealing with sanctions on Iraq... I know I tried my damnedest, but of course I failed, and for that I feel terrible."
Lessons must be learned on planning for military action, he said.
Former foreign secretary Jack Straw, who served as foreign secretary during the Iraq War
However, he added that "getting all of these things right does not guarantee the success of a military intervention".
"The decisions made by me and others can only properly be judged in the context of the time. I take full responsibility for all those that I made," he said in a statement.
Mr Cameron said he backed intervention in Libya, which was done with a UN resolution and without troops on the ground, but the difficulties there "are plain for all to see today".
Other politicians
Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron called for "an apology" in the wake of the report.
Speaking outside the Cabinet Office, he said: "It's a stark contrast between Mr Blair's absolute, ruthless determination to go to war almost no matter the evidence on the one hand, and on the other hand his complete failure and the government's failure to plan at all over what happened next."
He said Mr Blair needed to "take responsibility" but he also aimed criticism at the opposition at the time, led by then Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith and many people who are "currently on the Conservative front bench", who he said "so spectacularly failed" to hold the government at the time to account, and who "acted as cheerleaders for war".
Mr Farron said the report "utterly vindicates" former Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy's opposition to the war at the time.
"My overriding impression is Charles Kennedy is utterly vindicated. Those who attacked him at the time owe his family, and indeed our country, an apology."
